1 option
Pointing at the past : from formula to performance in Homeric poetics / by Egbert J. Bakker.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Bakker, Egbert J.
- Series:
- Hellenic studies ; 12.
- Hellenic studies ; 12
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Homer--Technique.
- Homer.
- Epic poetry, Greek--History and criticism.
- Epic poetry, Greek.
- Performing arts--Greece.
- Performing arts.
- Epic poetry--Authorship.
- Epic poetry.
- Oral tradition--Greece.
- Oral tradition.
- Technique.
- Greece.
- Oral-formulaic analysis.
- Homer--Language.
- Rhetoric, Ancient.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (xiii, 205 pages).
- Place of Publication:
- Washington, D.C. : Center for Hellenic Studies, Trustees for Harvard University ; Cambridge, Mass. : Distributed by Harvard University Press, 2005.
- System Details:
- text file
- Summary:
- Homeric epic is concerned with the past. Its heroes are larger than life and accomplish their exploits in a bygone age outside the reach of ordinary mortals. Yet epic is not only a nostalgic memory of a remote past, but also, as performance, a deliberate act in the present. In fact, as this book argues, memory is itself a deliberate act when it is turned into epic language. With numerous fresh linguistic observations the author shows that the epic narrator makes the epic past come to the present: epic is not only a verbal artifact that points to the past; it also is a performer's act of pointing at a past that has become present in and through language. Building on his earlier work, Bakker demonstrates the power of discourse analysis, in this case a detailed analysis of the language of "deixis" as an essential tool for elucidating the poetics of the Homeric tradition. The book deals with such varied topics as epic formulas, grammatical tense, and the celebrated "vividness" of the Homeric poems.
- Contents:
- Peripheral and nuclear semantics
- Formula, context, and synonymy
- How oral is oral composition?
- Mimesis as performance
- The poetics of deixis
- Storytelling in the future
- Similes, augment, and the language of immediacy
- Remembering the god's arrival
- Mohammed and the mountain.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 177-190) and indexes.
- Print version record.
- Other Format:
- Print version: Bakker, Egbert J. Pointing at the past.
- OCLC:
- 636617571
- Access Restriction:
- Restricted for use by site license.
The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.