Arete and the Odyssey's poetics of interrogation : the queen and her question / Justin Arft.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Arft, Justin Tyler, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Homer. Odyssey.
• Odysseus, King of Ithaca (Mythological character)--In literature.
• Odysseus, King of Ithaca (Mythological character).
• Odyssey (Homer).
• Epic poetry, Greek--History and criticism.
• Queens in literature.
• Questioning in literature.
• Epic poetry, Greek.
• Literature.

Genre:

• Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 362 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2022.

Summary:

Arete and the Odyssey's Poetics of Interrogation explores how the enigmatic Phaeacian queen, Arete, is at the heart of an epic-scale "poetics of interrogation" used throughout the Odyssey to negotiate Odysseus' kleos, or epic renown. Arete's interrogation of Odysseus has been especially problematic in scholarship, but diachronic and synchronic analysis of similar interrogations across Indo-European, Orphic, and Greek epigrammatic corpora show that the "stranger's interrogation" is a formula that demands performance and negotiation of status. Within the Odyssey, this interrogation is part of an intraformular network used to generate kleos, and the queen's question initiates the longest and most complex negotiation of Odysseus' status in epic and memory. Arete's role as interrogator not only explains her strange authority and resonance with both Penelope and comparative afterlife figures, but it also establishes a gendered, agonistic tension between she and her husband, Alkinoos, that influences the structure, genre, and narratology of performances across the Phaeacian episode. This book reinterprets the Odyssey's central episode and challenges several assumptions about Nausikaa and Alkinoos' famed hospitality, even demonstrating how the Apologue is organized as a response to competing inquiries into Odysseus' fundamental status in tradition. The Odyssey ultimately navigates away from Odysseus' public reputation and roots his status in private memories, and Arete's carefully arranged interventions signal the larger process by which the Odyssey immortalizes Odysseus in poetry as a nostos hero. The queen and her question invite new applications of oral poetics that shed light on the structure, composition, and reperformance of the Odyssey.

Notes:

• Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
• Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on October 10, 2022).

Other Format:

Print version :

ISBN:

• 9780191943188
• 0191943185
• 9780192663597
• 0192663593

OCLC:

1306277969

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.