Innes - Epic

EPIC

This student guidebook offers a clear introduction to an often complex and unwieldy area of literary studies. Tracing epic from its ancient and classical roots through post-modern and contemporary examples this volume discusses:

• a wide range of writers including Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Dante, Chaucer, Milton, Cervantes, Keats, Byron, Eliot, Walcott and Tolkien
• texts from poems, novels, childrens literature, television, theatre and film
• themes and motifs such as romance, tragedy, religion, journeys and the supernatural.

Offering new directions for the future and addressing the place of epic in both English-language texts and World Literature, this handy book takes you on a fascinating guided tour through the epic.

Paul Innes is a senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow. He has published widely on Shakespeare, early modern literature and literary theory.

THE NEW CRITICAL IDIOM

SERIES EDITOR: JOHN DRAKAKIS, UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING

The New Critical Idiom is an invaluable series of introductory guides to todays critical terminology. Each book:

• provides a handy, explanatory guide to the use (and abuse) of the term;
• offers an original and distinctive overview by a leading literary and cultural critic;
• relates the term to the larger field of cultural representation.

With a strong emphasis on clarity, lively debate and the widest possible breadth of examples, The New Critical Idiom is an indispensable approach to key topics in literary studies.

Also available in this series:

Adaptation and Appropriation

by Julie Sanders

Allegory by Jeremy Tambling

The Author by Andrew Bennett

Autobiography second edition by

Linda Anderson

Class by Gary Day

Colonialism/Postcolonialism second

edition by Ania Loomba

Comedy by Andrew Stott

Crime Fiction by John Scaggs

Culture/Metaculture by Francis Mulhern

Dialogue by Peter Womack

Difference by Mark Currie

Discourse second edition by

Sara Mills

Drama/Theatre/Performance

by Simon Shepherd and Mick Wallis

Dramatic Monologue by Glennis Byron

Ecocriticism second edition

by Greg Garrard

Elegy by David Kennedy

Genders second edition

by David Glover and Cora Kaplan

Genre by John Frow

Gothic by Fred Botting

The Historical Novel by Jerome de Groot

Historicism second edition

by Paul Hamilton

Humanism second edition

by Tony Davies

Ideology second edition by

David Hawkes

Interdisciplinarity second

edition by Joe Moran

Intertextuality second

edition by Graham Allen

Irony by Claire Colebrook

Literature by Peter Widdowson

Lyric by Scott Brewster

Magic(al) Realism by

Maggie Ann Bowers

Memory by Anne Whitehead

Metaphor by David Punter

Metre, Rhythm and Verse Form

by Philip Hobsbaum

Mimesis by Matthew Potolsky

Modernism second edition

by Peter Childs

Myth second edition

by Laurence Coupe

Narrative by Paul Cobley

Parody by Simon Dentith

Pastoral by Terry Gifford

Performativity by James Loxley

The Postmodern by Simon Malpas

Realism by Pam Morris

Rhetoric by Jennifer Richards

Romance by Barbara Fuchs

Romanticism second edition

by Aidan Day

Science Fiction second edition by Adam Roberts

Sexuality second edition

by Joseph Bristow

Stylistics by Richard Bradford

Subjectivity by Donald E. Hall

The Sublime by Philip Shaw

Travel Writing by Carl Thompson

The Unconscious by Antony Easthope

EPIC

Paul Innes

First published 2013

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2013 Paul Innes

The right of Paul Innes to be identified as author of

this work has been asserted by him in accordance with

sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Innes, Paul, 1964

Epic / Paul Innes.

p. cm. (The new critical idiom)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Epic literature History and criticism.

2. Epic films History and criticism. I. Title.

PN56.E65I56 2013

809.9357 dc23

2012033101

ISBN: 978-0-415-58738-9 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-415-58739-6 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-203-14825-9 (ebk)

CONTENTS

SERIES EDITORS PREFACE

The New Critical Idiom is a series of introductory books which seeks to extend the lexicon of literary terms, in order to address the radical changes which have taken place in the study of literature during the last decades of the twentieth century. The aim is to provide clear, well-illustrated accounts of the full range of terminology currently in use, and to evolve histories of its changing usage.

The current state of the discipline of literary studies is one where there is considerable debate concerning basic questions of terminology. This involves, among other things, the boundaries which distinguish the literary from the non-literary; the position of literature within the larger sphere of culture; the relationship between literatures of different cultures; and questions concerning the relation of literary to other cultural forms within the context of interdisciplinary studies.

It is clear that the field of literary criticism and theory is a dynamic and heterogeneous one. The present need is for individual volumes on terms which combine clarity of exposition with an adventurousness of perspective and a breadth of application. Each volume will contain as part of its apparatus some indication of the direction in which the definition of particular terms is likely to move, as well as expanding the disciplinary boundaries within which some of these terms have been traditionally contained. This will involve some re-situation of terms within the larger field of cultural representation, and will introduce examples from the area of film and the modern media in addition to examples from a variety of literary texts.

A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks are due to Emma Joyes and Niall Slater at Routledge for their unfailing editorial support and their understanding of academics and their foibles. However, my main thanks go to my wife, Cathy, and her even greater ability to put up with me in particular. This book is dedicated to her.