Pointing at the Past: From Formula to Performance in Homeric Poetics
Harvard University Press, 2005
Paper: 978-0-674-01955-3
Library of Congress Classification PA4177.E6B35 2005
Dewey Decimal Classification 883.01
Paper: 978-0-674-01955-3
Library of Congress Classification PA4177.E6B35 2005
Dewey Decimal Classification 883.01
ABOUT THIS BOOK | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
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, Egbert Bakker demonstrates the power of discourse analysis as an essential tool for elucidating the poetics of the Homeric tradition.
See other books on: Homer | Oral tradition | Past | Rhetoric, Ancient | Technique
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