Synopses & Reviews
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.
Synopsis
With numerous fresh linguistic observations Bakker 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.
About the Author
Egbert Bakker is Associate Professor of Greek at the University of Montreal.
Table of Contents
Preface
Peripheral and Nuclear Semantics
Formula, Context, and Synoymy
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
Bibliography
General Index
Index of Passages Discussed