Mythologizing performance / Richard P. Martin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Martin, Richard P., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Greek poetry--History and criticism.

Greek poetry.

Oral tradition--Greece.

Oral tradition.

Literature and anthropology--Greece.

Literature and anthropology.

Genre:

Essays.

Place of Publication:

Cornell University Press

Summary:

"Building on numerous original close readings of works by Homer, Hesiod, and other ancient Greek poets, Richard P. Martin articulates a broad and precise poetics of archaic Greek verse. The ancient Greek hexameter poetry of such works as the Iliad and the Odyssey differ from most modern verbal art because it was composed for live, face-to-face performance, often in a competitive setting, before an audience well versed in mythological and ritual lore. The essays collected here span Martin's acclaimed career and explore ways of reading this poetic heritage using principles and evidence from the comparative study of oral traditions, literary and speech-act theories, and the ethnographic record"-- Publisher's Web site.

Contents:

Epic as genre

Similes and performance

Formulas and speeches : the usefulness of Parry's method

Wrapping Homer up : cohesion, discourse, and deviation in the Iliad

Apollo's cithara and Poseidon's crash-test : ritual and contest in the evolution of Greek aesthetics

The senses of an ending : myth, ritual, and poetic exodia in performance

Synchronic aspects of Homeric performance : the evidence of the Hymn to Apollo

Rhapsodizing Orpheus

Golden verses : voice and authority in the tablets

Hesiod and the didactic double

Hesiod's metanastic poetics

Hesiod, Odysseus, and the instruction of princes

Pulp epic : the catalogue and the shield

Keens from the absent chorus : Troy to Ulster

Telemachus and the last hero song

Until it ends : varieties of Iliadic anticipation

Distant landmarks : Homer and Hesiod.

ISBN:

1-5017-1309-4