Table Of ContentEPIC
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
volumediscusses:
(cid:1) a wide range of writers including Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Dante, Chaucer,
Milton,Cervantes,Keats,Byron,Eliot,WalcottandTolkien
(cid:1) texts from poems, novels, children’s literature, television, theatre
andfilm
(cid:1) themes and motifs such as romance, tragedy, religion, journeys
andthesupernatural.
Offering new directions for the future and addressing the place of epic
inbothEnglish-languagetextsandWorldLiterature,thishandybooktakes
youonafascinatingguidedtourthroughtheepic.
Paul Innes is a senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow. He has pub-
lishedwidelyonShakespeare, earlymodernliteratureandliterary theory.
THE NEW CRITICAL IDIOM
SERIESEDITOR:JOHNDRAKAKIS,UNIVERSITYOFSTIRLING
The New Critical Idiom is an invaluable series of introductory guides to today’s
criticalterminology.Eachbook:
(cid:1)providesahandy,explanatoryguidetotheuse(andabuse)oftheterm;
(cid:1)offersanoriginalanddistinctiveoverviewbyaleadingliteraryandculturalcritic;
(cid:1)relatesthetermtothelargerfieldofculturalrepresentation.
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
literarystudies.
Alsoavailableinthisseries:
AdaptationandAppropriation Humanism–secondedition
byJulieSanders byTonyDavies
AllegorybyJeremyTambling Ideology–secondeditionby
TheAuthorbyAndrewBennett DavidHawkes
Autobiography–secondeditionby Interdisciplinarity–second
LindaAnderson editionbyJoeMoran
ClassbyGaryDay Intertextuality–second
Colonialism/Postcolonialism–second editionbyGrahamAllen
editionbyAniaLoomba IronybyClaireColebrook
ComedybyAndrewStott LiteraturebyPeterWiddowson
CrimeFictionbyJohnScaggs LyricbyScottBrewster
Culture/MetaculturebyFrancisMulhern Magic(al)Realismby
DialoguebyPeterWomack MaggieAnnBowers
DifferencebyMarkCurrie MemorybyAnneWhitehead
Discourse–secondeditionby MetaphorbyDavidPunter
SaraMills Metre,RhythmandVerseForm
Drama/Theatre/Performance byPhilipHobsbaum
bySimonShepherdandMickWallis MimesisbyMatthewPotolsky
DramaticMonologuebyGlennisByron Modernism–secondedition
Ecocriticism–secondedition byPeterChilds
byGregGarrard Myth–secondedition
ElegybyDavidKennedy byLaurenceCoupe
Genders–secondedition NarrativebyPaulCobley
byDavidGloverandCoraKaplan ParodybySimonDentith
GenrebyJohnFrow PastoralbyTerryGifford
GothicbyFredBotting PerformativitybyJamesLoxley
TheHistoricalNovelbyJeromedeGroot ThePostmodernbySimonMalpas
Historicism–secondedition RealismbyPamMorris
byPaulHamilton RhetoricbyJenniferRichards
RomancebyBarbaraFuchs StylisticsbyRichardBradford
Romanticism–secondedition SubjectivitybyDonaldE.Hall
byAidanDay TheSublimebyPhilipShaw
ScienceFiction–secondedition TravelWritingbyCarlThompson
byAdamRoberts TheUnconsciousbyAntonyEasthope
Sexuality–secondedition
byJosephBristow
EPIC
Paul Innes
Firstpublished2013
byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN
SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada
byRoutledge
711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
©2013PaulInnes
TherightofPaulInnestobeidentifiedasauthorof
thisworkhasbeenassertedbyhiminaccordancewith
sections77and78oftheCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproduced
orutilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,
nowknownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,
orinanyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissionin
writingfromthepublishers.
Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksor
registeredtrademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationand
explanationwithoutintenttoinfringe.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Innes,Paul,1964–
Epic/PaulInnes.
p.cm.–(Thenewcriticalidiom)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.Epicliterature–Historyandcriticism.
2.Epicfilms–Historyandcriticism.I.Title.
PN56.E65I562013
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)
TypesetinGaramond
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
C
ONTENTS
Series editor’s preface ix
Acknowledgements x
1 Epic literary history 1
Ancient and classical epic 3
From the heroic towards romance and allegory 12
The Renaissance and the early novel 15
Epic in the age of the individual 18
2 Ancient and classical epic 25
Sumerian and Akkadian epic 26
The Bible 29
Greek epic 31
Latin epic 41
The Sanskrit epics 55
3 From the heroic towards romance and allegory 66
The Shah-Namah 67
Heroic epic and saga 74
The Celts: tales from Ireland and Wales 85
Epic and the Chansons de Geste 90
Epic and romance 94
Epic and allegory 100
4 The Renaissance and the early novel 108
Three Italians and two Englishmen 109
The Lusiads 121
VIII CONTENTS
Milton 124
The early novel 127
5 Epic in the age of the individual 134
Poetry 135
Epic and the novel 141
From Modernism to Post-Modernism 146
Contemporary 157
Glossary 160
Bibliography 163
Index 171
S ’
ERIES EDITOR S 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 indivi-
dual 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.
