To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: Epic poetry.
Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Epic poetry'
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 50 dissertations / theses for your research on the topic 'Epic poetry.'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse dissertations / theses on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
Clemenzi-Allen, Benjamin. "Epic." PDXScholar, 2013. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/983.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis consists of a collection of poems: two thematic-translations that engage source material for their composition and two anaphoric poems. “A Seeson in Heckk,” an epyllion (or mini-epic), engages Arthur Rimbaud's "A Season in Hell," as it echoes his syntax and translates some of his themes into a portrait of a troubled young speaker familiar but strange to Rimbaud's. “Love Poem,” the first anaphoric poem in the collection, explores the arc of a relationship through surreal, bizarre, and lyrical images that chart the experience of falling in and out of a tumultuous love affair. “THE BOOK OF CLAY” is composed in relation to “The Narrative of the Captivity and the Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.” These poems form a surreal, pastiche, thematic-translation of the early American's accounts of her experience during the King Philip's War. “Transplant: Final Lines from a Poem Titled, Cardiology” also uses anaphora, while it explores emotional identity, authenticity, and an overused poetic trope: the heart.
2
Callaway, Cathy L. "The oath in epic poetry /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/11449.
Full text
3
Haubold, Johannes. "Homer's people : epic poetry and social formation /." Cambridge : Cambridge University, 2000. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/cam023/99037676.html.
Full text
4
Haydon, Liam David. "'I sing'? : narrative technique in epic poetry." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2012. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/i-sing-narrative-technique-in-epic-potry(3d7d23da-ade0-424c-93a2-9b183283e30e).html.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines the genre of epic, and particularly Milton’s Paradise Lost. It argues that it is only in attending to the contextual interactions within Paradise Lost that its full meaning can be comprehended. It demonstrates that the poem not only narrates the Fall, but actively performs its consequences in its thematic and linguistic structures, which continually stress the impossibility of approaching perfect (divine) totality. Chapter one outlines the theoretical response to epic, read as a petrified genre in contrast to the newness, openness and linguistic flexibility of the novel. It then challenges these assumptions through a reading of the invocation to book III of Paradise Lost. The chapter closes by examining seventeenth-century writings on epic, demonstrating that Milton’s contemporaries saw the epic as defined by the possibility of didactic intervention into its context. Chapter two examines the forms of the epic metaphor, which serve as a temporal link between the ‘mythic’ past of epic and contemporary events. It then shows that the nationalistic impulse of epic was a method by which the mythic past of a country was deployed as an exemplary narrative for the present. The chapter closes by considering the ways in which shifts in national conception were mapped onto the epic. Chapter three outlines Paradise Lost’s thematic engagement with the concept of representation. It focuses on the twin images of the music of the spheres and the Tower of Babel, used in Paradise Lost to represent man’s relationship with God. It argues that the poem uses these tropes to explore the linguistic effects of the Fall. Both these images are deployed to suggest that postlapsarian expression is too open and ambiguous to properly portray divinity. Chapter four moves that discussion to a linguistic level, arguing that the poem is characterised by indeterminacy. It argues that Paradise Lost calls into question the possibility of expressing perfect truth in fractured, postlapsarian language. It shows that punning is the mark of fallen creatures in the poem, and suggests that the poem’s own puns exploit this category to linguistically question its own status as representation through performances of ambiguity. The conclusion synthesises these local readings of Paradise Lost into a reading of the poem as a whole. It argues that these individual instances demonstrate the poem’s continual reflexive concern over its theodicean project. By continually expressing ambiguity, at the level of imagery and language, Paradise Lost draws attention to its status as postlapsarian art, and the consequent impossibility of approaching the divine perfection exemplified by the celestial music or prelapsarian language.
5
Maynard, Katherine S. "Epic lessons : pedagogy and national narrative in the epic poetry of Early Modern France /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/8299.
Full text
6
Macleod, Eilidh. "Linguistic evidence for Mycenaean epic." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/14497.
Full textAbstract:
It is now widely acknowledged that the Greek epic tradition, best known from Homer, dates back into the Mycenaean Age, and that certain aspects of epic language point to an origin for this type of verse before the date of the extant Linear B tablets. This thesis argues that not only is this so, but that indeed before the end of the Mycenaean Age epic verse was composed in a distinctive literary language characterized by the presence of alternative forms used for metrical convenience. Such alternatives included dialectal variants and forms which were retained in epic once obsolete in everyday speech. Thus epic language in the 2nd millennium already possessed some of the most distinctive characteristics manifest in its Homeric incarnation, namely the presence of doublets and the retention of archaisms. It is argued here that the most probable source for accretions to epic language was at all times the spoken language familiar to the poets of the tradition. There is reason to believe that certain archaic forms, attested only in epic and its imitators, were obsolete in spoken Greek before 1200 B.C.; by examining formulae containing such forms it is possible to determine the likely subject-matter of 2nd millennium epic. Such a linguistic analysis leads to the conclusion that much of the thematic content of Homeric epic corresponds to that of 2nd millennium epic. Non-Homeric early dactylic verse (e.g. the Hesiodic corpus) provides examples of both non-Homeric dialect forms and of archaisms unknown from Homer. This fact, it is argued, points to the conclusion that the 2nd millennium linguistic heritage of epic is evident also from these poems, and that they are not simply imitations of Homer, but independent representatives of the same poetic tradition whose roots lie in the 2nd millennium epic.
7
Hershkowitz, Debra. "Madness in Greek and Latin epic." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.296228.
Full text
8
Foster, Hubert Wakefield. "Catullus' Attis counterfeit epic /." Diss., Columbia, Mo. : University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10355/5975.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007.The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on March 24, 2009) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.
9
Marks, James Richard. "Divine plan and narrative plan in archaic Greek epic /." Digital version:, 2001. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/fullcit?p3026208.
Full text
10
Moss, Carina M. "Elegy with Epic Consequences: Elegiac Themes in Statius’ Thebaid." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1592134478208502.
Full text
11
Radway, John North. "The Fate of Epic in Twentieth-Century American Poetry." Thesis, Harvard University, 2015. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:26718713.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation explores the afterlife of the Western epic tradition in the poetry of the United States of America after World War Two and in the wake of high modernism. The ancient, Classical conception of epic, as formulated by Aristotle, involves a crucial, integral opposition between ethos, or character, and mythos, or the defining features, narratives, and histories of the world through which ethos moves. The classical epic and its direct line of succession, from Homer to Virgil to Dante to Milton and even to Joel Barlow, uses the opposition between ethos and mythos to create literary tension and drive. In the first half of the twentieth century, however, Ezra Pound upended this tradition dynamic by attempting to create a new form of epic in which mythos, not ethos, was the principal agonist, and in which large-scale aspects of the political, literary, and economic world struggled for survival on their own terms, thus divorcing epic from its traditional reliance on ethos. Chapter One explores this dubious revolution in terms of Pound’s larger project of breaking away from his nineteenth century forbears. The remaining chapters comprise three case studies of the divergent ways in which later twentieth century poets sought to salvage something of the traditional epic dynamic from the ruin wracked by Pound and his acolytes. Chapter Two explores John Berryman’s 77 Dream Songs, an epic-like poem that models itself subtly on Dante’s Commedia while placing a profound and deliberate emphasis on ethos even at the expense of mythos. Chapter Three explores Robert Lowell’s career-long effort to expose the terrifyingly inexorable nature of mythos, constructing an inconceivably enormous presence against whom character and divinity alike struggle in vain. Finally, Chapter Four examines Adrienne Rich’s early and middle years as an attempt to outline and enact a politically and socially efficacious means by which ethos might finally overcome mythos and liberate itself not only from the recursive historical traps of Pound, modernism, fascism, and patriarchy, but also from the literary history and tradition that lured humanity into believing that those traps ever existed. Berryman’s intervention in the epic tradition is heavily literary and overtly personal; Lowell’s is cynical, apocalyptic, and descriptively political; and Rich’s is revolutionary and messianic. Together, these three poets represent a meaningful sampling of the afterlife of the epic tradition in late twentieth-century America.English
12
Kellermann, Alan Michael. "Columbus Day." Thesis, Swansea University, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.678545.
Full text
13
Graham, Colin. "Ideologies of epic : empire and nation in the epic poetry of Tennyson, Samuel Ferguson and Edwin Arnold." Thesis, University of Bristol, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.240062.
Full text
14
Cox, P. "'Unnatural refuge' : Aspects of pastoral in William Blake's epic poetry." Thesis, University of York, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.234932.
Full text
15
Aloè, Carla. "The New World mythology in Italian epic poetry, 1492-1650." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2016. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/7013/.
Full textAbstract:
My thesis explores the construction of the New World mythology as it appears in early modern Italian epic poems. It focuses on how Italian writers engage with and contribute to this process of myth-creation; how the newly created mythology relates to the political, social and cultural context of the time; and investigates extent to which it was affected by the personal agendas of the poets. By analysing three New World myths (Brazilian Amazons, Patagonian giants and Canadian pygmies), it provides insights into the perception that Italians had of the newly discovered lands in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, as well as providing a greater understanding of the role that early modern Italy had in the ‘invention’ of the Americas. Italian epic poets domesticated New World myths for their own purposes, using written, visual and material sources as an anchor for their agendas. The study of these myths changes, in some cases completely, our reading of the poems. New World myths are at once an exercise in ekphrasis of the maps, cartouches, engravings and collectible objects they derived from, and a record of the impact the Americas had on the early modern Italians.
16
Jorge, Diane. "Female characterisation in the epic poetry of P. Papinius Statius." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18652.
Full textAbstract:
"No serious Latinist will deny the probability that Statius will again emerge from the current scholarly re-evaluation of Silver Age Epic as the great poet he seemed to the finest spirits of High Middle Ages and Renaissance, rather than as the pale imitator of Virgil he appeared to the censorious criticism of the nineteenth century, obsessed as it was with its twin heresies of originality and inevitable progress." (Tanner, R G 1986. Epic Tradition and Epigram in Statius ANRW II 32.5, 3020) Publius Papinius Statius (c.AD 40-96) is best known for his occasional poetry, the Silvae, which is in scholarly vogue at present. He also composed a monumental twelve-book epic, little known until this century, concerning the myth of the Seven Against Thebes, as well as beginning a poem, popular in the Middle Ages, intended to chronicle the full career of the hero, Achilles. Death prevented the completion of the latter work, so that there are only 1127 lines extant. I here undertake an evaluation of female characterisation in the Thebaid and Achilleid, as a positive contribution to the rehabilitation programme described in the quotation above. Because Statius' poetry properly observes the ancient literary convention of imitatio, an examination of any feature thereof necessarily first takes account of the treatment of these myths before Statius. Although there is no precise literary precedent for the Achilleid, there are various possible Greek and Roman sources for the Thebaid, among them Euripides' Phoenissae and Hypsipyle, Apollonius' Argonautica and Seneca's Phoenissae. Naturally Homer's Iliad provided many of the poetical techniques for depicting the pathos of young warriors killed in battle and the subsequent grief of their relatives. A vital consideration, given Statius' reputation as a "pale imitator of Virgil", is to identify the influence of the Aeneid on Statius' techniques of characterisation, as well as to assess his usage of Virgilian style and phraseology. An equally significant contribution to Statius' presentation of women, and one of especial importance for the Achilleid, is made by Ovidian poetry, particularly the Metamorphoses and Heroides. To a lesser extent Statius was influenced by contemporary Latin epics: Valerius Flaccus' mythological Argonautica, Lucan's politico-historical Pharsalia and Silius Italicus' Punica. In analysing the presentation of heroines and goddesses in the Thebaid, little attempt is made to divine a method or spirit of characterisation "common" to both poems. Rather, the contrast between the portrayal of female personality in the two epics emphasises the very different tone of each: the distinctly comic tone of the Achilleid is reflected in the light-hearted portrayal of the three main characters Thetis, Deidamia and Achilles; on the other hand, the tragic atmosphere of the Thebaid is reflected in the intense portrayal of the chief female characters, Argia, Antigone, Jocasta and Hypsipyle. Insofar as it is ever valid or possible to expect literature to reflect the "real" perceptions and ideals of author and audience, I make some brief attempt to set Statius' treatment of his female characters against the prevailing attitudes and socio-cultural norms of his day. Statius' portrayal of women in his Silvae is of some relevance here, though chiefly the poems are to be regarded as literary texts rather than sociological documents.
17
Roberts, T. (Terry). "A study of the similes in late Greek epic poetry." Master's thesis, Faculty of Arts, 1986. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/11720.
Full text
18
Bolton, Carol. "Robert Southey and British romanticism in the context of empire." Thesis, Nottingham Trent University, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.271784.
Full text
19
Vodoklys, Edward J. "Blame-expression in the epic tradition." New York : Garland, 1992. http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/25130912.html.
Full text
20
Holt, Timothy. "Fighting in the shadow of epic : the motivations of soldiers in early Greek lyric poetry." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:0e705e39-2ba1-4ac0-9833-f4f6afb04af2.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis explores the theme of the motivation of soldiers in Greek lyric poetry while holding it up against the backdrop of epic. The motivation of soldiers expressed in lyric poetry depicts a complex system that demanded cohesion across various spheres in life. This system was designed to create and maintain social, communal, and political cohesion as well as cohesion in the ranks. The lyric poems reveal a mutually beneficial relationship between citizen and polis whereby the citizens were willing to fight and potentially die on behalf of the state, and in return they received prominence and rewards within the community. It is no coincidence that these themes were so common in a genre that was popular at the same time as the polis and citizen army were both developing.
21
Platt, Mary Hartley. "Epic reduction : receptions of Homer and Virgil in modern American poetry." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:9d1045f5-3134-432b-8654-868c3ef9b7de.
Full textAbstract:
The aim of this project is to account for the widespread reception of the epics of Homer and Virgil by American poets of the twentieth century. Since 1914, an unprecedented number of new poems interpreting the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid have appeared in the United States. The vast majority of these modern versions are short, combining epic and lyric impulses in a dialectical form of genre that is shaped, I propose, by two cultural movements of the twentieth century: Modernism, and American humanism. Modernist poetics created a focus on the fragmentary and imagistic aspects of Homer and Virgil; and humanist philosophy sparked a unique trend of undergraduate literature survey courses in American colleges and universities, in which for the first time, in the mid-twentieth century, hundreds of thousands of students were exposed to the epics in translation, and with minimal historical contextualisation, prompting a clear opportunity for personal appropriation on a broad scale. These main matrices for the reception of epic in the United States in the twentieth century are set out in the introduction and first chapter of this thesis. In the five remaining chapters, I have identified secondary threads of historical influence, scrutinised alongside poems that developed in that context, including the rise of Freudian and related psychologies; the experience of modern warfare; American national politics; first- and second-wave feminism; and anxiety surrounding poetic belatedness. Although modern American versions of epic have been recognised in recent scholarship on the reception of Classics in twentieth-century poetry in English, no comprehensive account of the extent of the phenomenon has yet been attempted. The foundation of my arguments is a catalogue of almost 400 poems referring to Homer and Virgil, written by over 175 different American poets from 1914 to the present. Using a comparative methodology (after T. Ziolkowski, Virgil and the Moderns, 1993), and models of reception from German and English reception theory (including C. Martindale, Redeeming the Text, 1993), the thesis contributes to the areas of classical reception studies and American literary history, and provides a starting point for considering future steps in the evolution of the epic genre.
22
Spann, Britta. "Reviving Kalliope : four North American women and the epic tradition /." Connect to title online (Scholars' Bank) Connect to title online (ProQuest), 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/10356.
Full textAbstract:
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Discusses the poetry of H.D., Gwendolyn Brooks, Louise Glück, and Anne Carson. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 261-267). Also available online in Scholars' Bank; and in ProQuest, free to University of Oregon users.
23
Irwin, E. "Epic situation and the politics of exhortation : political uses of poetic tradition in archaic Greek poetry." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.604960.
Full textAbstract:
The thesis begins by exploring a central problem: while the genre of elegiac exhortation poetry both invites and itself exploits analogies between, on the one hand, the immediate audience and performance setting of the poem and, on the other, the broader civic identities of that audience and larger civic context to which they belong. And yet, the circumscribed social setting for which it was produced, the private aristocratic symposion, complicates the interpretation of seemingly all-embracing political terms such as city, fatherland, country. The thesis challenges the prevailing orthodoxy with the questions, who constitute the city, what expressions of attachment to it mean, and how such expressions function within their poetic and larger social context. By asking what it means for symposiasts to recite in the first person exhortations evocative of those spoken by the heroes of epic, the thesis reveals the elitist claims and pretensions implicit in this heroic role-playing, pretensions which are themselves deeply political. The thesis culminates in an examination of the explicitly political poetry and career of Solon, providing a much-needed study of this figure whose dual career as poet and lawgiver epitomises the stakes involved in the appropriation of poetic traditions in this period. A close reading of Solon 4 demonstrates how the poem carefully situates itself in an adversarial relationship to the martial poetic traditions of epic and elegiac exhortation, while positively embracing the themes of Hesiod and Odyssean epic. The indications of a political stance inherent in these poetic 'situations' provides the basis for a more wide-ranging discussion of the relationship of Solon's poetry to his political career. It concludes by re-evaluating the relationship of Solon to tyranny, and, finally, by offering an interpretation of the importance of Homeric poetry in the political agenda of the Athenian tyrants who followed him.
24
Mason, Henry Charles. "The Hesiodic Aspis : introduction and commentary on vv. 139-237." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:05a4c022-03d0-4508-800c-9e68e8429999.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis is concerned with the pseudo-Hesiodic Aspis, also known as the Scutum or Shield of Herakles (Heracles). It is divided into two halves: the Introduction, consisting of four chapters, is followed by detailed line-by-line commentary on a portion of the Greek text. Chapter I surveys the evidence for the poem's origins and dating before moving on to its scholarly reception since Wolf. It then argues that, for a proper understanding of the Aspis, the methodologies of oral poetics must be balanced with an awareness of its responses to fixed texts (in particular the Iliad). Chapter II examines the author as a poet within the oral tradition, focussing on: narrative style and structuring; type-scenes; similes; poetic ethos; the poem's position relative to the Hesiodic corpus; the use of formular language; and the growth of the poem in the author's hands. These problems are most fruitfully approached by taking account of the interplay of tradition on the one hand and of allusion to specific texts on the other. Wider points about the advanced stages of the oral tradition also emerge; in particular, from an analysis of narrative inconsistencies in the Aspis it is suggested that writing played a role in the poem's composition. Chapter III positions the poet within the literary tradition: his interactions with other songs and tales are sometimes sophisticated engagements of a kind more often detected in Hellenistic and Roman poetry. The presentation of the protagonist of the Aspis evinces the poet's skilful handling of myth, here manipulated for political purposes. Chapter III concludes with a survey of the poem's reception in early art and in literature up to Byzantine times. In Chapter IV the central section of the poem, the description of Herakles' shield (vv. 139-320), is examined in detail, both in relation to the Homeric Shield of Achilles and within the context of the Aspis. The second half of the thesis comprises a critical edition of and lemmatic commentary on vv. 139-237.
25
Galligan, Francesca. "Epic poetry of the Trecento : Dante's Comedy, Boccaccio's Teseida, and Petrarch's Africa." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2004. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3f60fef5-c77a-4ba1-afd1-9460f650f57b.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis locates Dante's Divine Comedy (1307-1318), Boccaccio's Teseida (c.1340-1), and Petrarch's Africa (c. 1338-9) within a developing tradition of epic poetry. The works are usually treated separately, and are classed as epic to a varying degree, but I show that a reading of them as epic in light of each other enhances understanding of each, and illuminates more generally a history of the epic genre. I explore the extent to which the authors considered epic to be a distinct literary form, and counteract the notion that there was no conception of the genre in the Middle Ages. I show that similar responses to key areas of epic writing underlie surface differences between the poems. Where critics have tended to explore classical influences, I emphasise the importance of medieval epic texts for the formation of all three poems. I argue that in important respects the Comedy constitutes a new epic model for Petrarch and Boccaccio. I focus on Dante's development of the classical warrior hero into the contemporary Christian poet-hero, exploring his development of themes from 12th century Latin epics including the Anticlaudianus and Alexandreis. I suggest that the resulting emphasis on the theme of poetry is echoed in the Teseida and Africa. I argue that the Teseida revolves around issues of genre that are played out through the poems' gods and heroes, and that ultimately it resolves itself as a Dantean epic, through the hero Arcita. I show that the focus on poetry in the Africa, achieved both through the inclusion of poets as characters (including Petrarch himself) and by the explicit discussion of poetry within Book IX in particular, and the location of a Christian god at the heart of this historical narrative, reflect a treatment of key issues that bears similarity to that of Dante in the Comedy.
26
Smith, Laurel A. "A genre revised in the epic poetry of H.D. and Gwendolyn Brooks." Virtual Press, 1991. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/776700.
Full textAbstract:
In the canon of twentieth century American poetry, "long poems" or "anti-epics" or epic poems represent a formidable genre. Defining epic poetry has proved difficult in our modern era, and the possibility that women might write epics is not often considered. This study includes a review of the literature that may define the epic genre and of the literature that contributes to our understanding of a tradition of women's poetry in American literature. The review of both issues--possible epic poetry and women's poetic tradition--is a necessary prerequisite for considering the argument that H.D.'s iielen in Eavpt and Gwendolyn Brooks's In the Mecca are twentieth century epics. With the focus on a female heroine, on personal and interpersonal values, and on a reconsideration of cultural lieroism, these poems are important literary contributions in addition to being "revised" epics.A revision of the epic signifies that the poet has found a way to accomplish individual expression in this familiar genre, a genre characterized by narration, cultural themes that may be didactic, and multiple voices for the poet. H.D. and Brooks have revised the genre of epic poetry in unusual ways. H.D. has taken a legendary figure, Helen of Troy, and made her the primary speaker and the seeker of truth. Instead of the classical glorification of war, Helen's quest includes a renunciation of war and a reconsideration of the ways we know ourselves and our history. Brooks has made an "unknown" black woman the center of her urban epic. Mrs. Sallie's quest, initiated by the real search for a missing daughter, becomes a quest for the meaning of family, community, and selfhood.Revising the genre was a unique process for both H.D. and Brooks, and studying Helen and Mecca together emphasizes the diverse traditions--literary and nonliterary--that may elucidate our understanding of each poem. Moreover, only refers to a "a genre revised" by H.D. and Brooks not only refers to a revision of epic poetry but to poetry as a whole. Each woman created her own blend of "traditions and individual talent" in order to produce Helen in Egypt and In the Mecca.Department of English
27
Parkes, Ruth. "A commentary on Statius, Thebaid 4.1-308." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.275753.
Full text
28
Thayer, James Dyas. "Altered identities : time and transformation in Beowulf /." view abstract or download file of text, 2002. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p3055717.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002.Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 204-213). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users. Address: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p3055717.
29
Prozesky, Maria L. C. "Reading the English epic changing noetics from Beowulf to the Morte d'Arthur /." Pretoria : [s.n.], 2005. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-02282007-172136/.
Full text
30
Sullivan, Joseph Martin. "Counsel in Middle High German Arthurian romance /." Digital version accessible at:, 1999. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/main.
Full text
31
McClellan, Andrew Michael. "Dead and deader : the treatment of the corpse in latin imperial epic poetry." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/54458.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation examines the maltreatment of dead bodies in the epic poems of Lucan (Bellum Ciuile), Statius (Thebaid), and Silius Italicus (Punica). I focus on the depiction of corpses, their varied functions in each epic, and the literary engagement these authors have with the treatment of corpses in epics past, particularly Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid. I demonstrate the ingenuity with which these poets deploy corpses in their works by emphasizing the interplay and intertextuality between these authors, how they strive to be different from their epic predecessors and each other through their skillful elaborations on a major epic motif. The two main categories of maltreatment I analyze include the physical abuse directed at an enemy corpse and, similarly, the withholding or perversion of burial rites. In my Introduction I identify a major gap in scholarship concerning the treatment of corpses in Roman Imperial epic that my dissertation aims to fill. My project begins from a number of studies on corpse treatment in the Iliad, and my desire to provide a similar analysis of this theme for the Roman epics. Chapter 2 sets a baseline for epic corpse treatment by looking in detail at the Iliad and Aeneid, with the intention of establishing a normative framework which proves valuable for highlighting deviations from the norm in the treatment of corpses in Imperial epic. Chapter 3 analyzes decapitation in Lucan, Statius, and Silius, scenes which directly target and exploit less explicit constructions in Homer and Virgil. Chapter 4 looks at the wide array of burial perversions and abuses in Lucan, with a focus on Pompey’s fragmented burial rites. Chapters 5 and 6 analyze burial perversions in Statius and Silius, respectively, structured around Creon’s burial denial edict in the Thebaid and Hannibal’s warped funerals for Roman generals in the Punica. A brief Conclusion summarizes my findings, and looks ahead to further research on this topic. My project shows that encapsulated in the corpses and their treatment, these epics reveal a deep concern with violence, horror, life, and death, that reflects the larger disturbed functioning of each poet’s epic universe.Arts, Faculty of
Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Department of
Graduate
32
Bodie, Gary John. "A new kind of Beowulf : text, translation and technology /." view abstract or download file of text, 2007. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1453174591&sid=2&Fmt=2&clientId=11238&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2007.Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 243-254). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.
33
Nelis, Damien P. "The Aeneid and the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.297280.
Full text
34
Belam, Judith. "La Chevalerie Ogier de Danemarche - a critical edition." Thesis, University of Reading, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.390283.
Full text
35
Cooper, Michael T. "WELCOME TO THE PLANET: FORT LIVING ROOM O ROTTING SUN." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2015. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/192.
Full textAbstract:
O Rotting Sun is a pair of long narrative poems that leap, spanning over an epic-length manuscript—175 pages of prose block, lyrical verse, and projective verse. Its chief poetic-operational modes are: inclusion, fragmentation, textual destructions, intentional omissions, intentional misspelling, large narrative leaps; all of which engage a poetics of doubt and multiplicity. O Rotting Sun is a jarring and jangly poem of resistance, intended if possible, for being read aloud and argued with: a provocation of intense meditation, reflection, and when successful, disintegration of anger & agonism—followed by a reintegration of the reader back into a community of change and hope. These poems are an invitation to that hero’s journey which is sometimes painful, sometimes beautiful, sometimes both. I wish to welcome my heroic, wonderful, deep reader into this new world of O Rotting Sun.
36
Ntanou, Eleni. "Ovid and Virgil's pastoral poetry." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2018. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.748040.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis explores the generic interaction between Virgilian pastoral and Ovidian epic. My primary goal is to bring pastoral, substantially enriched by important critical work thereupon in recent decades, more energetically into the scholarly discussion of the Metamorphoses, whose multifaceted generic interplay is often limited to the study of its interaction with elegy. Secondarily, I hope to show how the Metamorphoses plays a pivotal role in the re-reading of the Eclogues. The fact that both epic and pastoral are written in hexameters facilitates the interaction between the two and enables the Metamorphosesâ repeated short-term transformations into pastoral poetry, which often end abruptly. I will try to show that although the engagement with pastoral occasionally appears to threaten the epic code of the poem, pastoral is ultimately integrated in the Metamorphosesâ generic self-definition as epic and partakes in Ovidâs dynamic recreation of the genre. My primary method is that of intertextuality, resting on the premise that all readings of textual relationships, as the one suggested here, are acts of interpretation. I also explore pastoral in the Metamorphoses intratextually by joining together various pastoral episodes of the Metamorphoses and arguing how similar thematics are replayed and rewritten throughout the poem. The main perspectives from which I examine pastoral in the Ovidian epic are those of fiction and the development of the thematics of the Golden Age. In the first part, I explore instances of song performances in the Metamorphoses, i) musical contests, ii) solo performances and iii) laments, in which I argue that pastoral is extensively at work. I suggest that the Metamorphoses employs pastoralâs overriding generic self-obsession and its tendency to create its own fiction internally, significantly through the means of singing performance and repetition. I argue that the mythopoetic means of pastoral are applied and reworked in the Metamorphoses for the creation of its epic world and heroes. In the second part, I explore the repeated occurrences of the Golden Age theme in the Metamorphoses and suggest that the remarkable engagement with pastoral is employed both to invite a political reading of the Golden Age, as set by Eclogue 4 and its post-Eclogues occurrences, and to recap the introversion of the pastoral enclosure and its seclusion from politics.
37
Platte, Ryan. "Horses and horsemanship in the oral poetry of Ancient Greece and the Indo-European world /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/11480.
Full text
38
O'Maley, James. ""Like-mindedness"? Intra-familial relations in the Iliad and the Odyssey." Connect to thesis, 2009. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/6725.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis argues that the defining characteristic of intra-familial relationships in both the Iliad and the Odyssey is inequality. Homeric relationship pairs that are presented positively are strongly marked by an uneven distribution of power and authority, and when family members do not subscribe to this ideology, the result is a dysfunctional relationship that is condemned by the poet and used as a negative paradigm for his characters. Moreover, the inequality favoured by the epics proceeds according to strict role-based rules with little scope for innovation according to personality, meaning that determination of authority is simple in the majority of cases. Wives are expected to submit themselves to their husbands, sons to their fathers, and less powerful brothers to their more dominant siblings. This rigid hierarchy does create the potential for problems in some general categories of relationship, and relations between mothers and sons in particular are strained in both epics, both because of the shifting power dynamic between them caused by the son’s increasing maturity and independence from his mother and her world, and because of Homeric epic’s persistent conjunction of motherhood with death. This category of familial relationships is portrayed in the epics as doomed to failure, but others are able to be depicted positively through adhering to the inequality that is portrayed in the epics as both natural and laudable.I will also argue that this systemic pattern of inequality can be understood as equivalent to the Homeric concept of homophrosyne (“like-mindedness”), a term which, despite its appearance of equality, in fact refers to a persistent inequality. Accordingly, for a Homeric relationship to be portrayed as successful, one partner must submit to the other, adapting themselves to the other’s outlook and aims, and subordinating their own ideals and desires. Through this, they are able to become “like-minded” with their partners, achieving something like the homophrosyne recommended for husbands and wives in the Odyssey.
39
Simons, Penelope. "The theme of education in twelfth- and thirteenth- century French epic and romance." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1990. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/3055/.
Full textAbstract:
This study examines the description of characters' education in twelfth- and thirteenth-century French epic and romance with two broad aims: to establish how education is described, and to suggest reasons why it is portrayed in the particular way that it is. The discussion is divided into three parts. The first provides the contextual framework for the second two, and presents a brief overview of the history of education in the period, together with a survey of the theory and practice of education in school and at home. Critics and historians have noted the link between education and literature and we provide a model of contemporary educational background, theory and practice, against which literary descriptions may be compared and understood. In Part II we analyse these literary descriptions, hitherto not comprehensively explored. Taking a large corpus of works, we examine the content of characters' education, drawing comparisons across genre and timespan, and with the model from Part I. This, together with further examination of where poets draw their inspiration, what they choose to include and how it is presented, provides a context within which particular features, descriptions or texts may be discussed. Part III examines particularly interesting treatments of education. Five different studies of individual works or groups of texts illustrate the range of ways education may function, and help us to establish the status of the education description in Old French literature. We conclude that poets deliberately describe and exploit education in various ways. These range from delineation of character, where we see authors shaping the raw material of narrative for their own ends, to major thematic use, essential for understanding a text. Study of the theme of education reveals its contribution to and reflection of the importance of medieval education and its influence on vernacular literature.
40
Voigt, Astrid. "Female lament in Greek and Roman epic poetry : its cultural discourses and narrative presentation." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.403991.
Full text
41
Herbison, David Ivan Currie. "The legacy of Christian epic : a study of Old English biblical and hagiographical poetry." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.394463.
Full text
42
Rieth, Homer Manfred University of Ballarat. "A locale of the cosmos : an epic of the Wimmera : exegesis and text." University of Ballarat, 2006. http://archimedes.ballarat.edu.au:8080/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/12757.
Full textAbstract:
"This project has, for its central component, an epic poem, 'A locale of the cosmos'. The accompanying exegesis examines epic as an ancient, but continually evolving form. It argues that, as a contemporary example of the genre and, as a sustained poetic rumination on landscape and memory, 'A locale of the cosmos' represents a significant development within the modern tradition of autobiographical epic. In broader terms, 'A locale of the cosmos' privileges the landscape and history of a region of Australia, the Wimmera region of north-western Victoria and, in doing so, explores the cumulative effects of the physical environment as a site for sustained poetic treatment. The poem is, therefore, an epic of both historical narrative and philosophical reflection, giving meaning to and interpreting ideas of space, place and locale. "Furthermore, it explores, in particular, the psychological and spiritual effects of vast horizontal distances, created by a landscape in which endless plains and immense horizons form an analogue of the wider cosmos. The poem's themes, therefore, bear not only on the prominences of the visible locale, but also explore the salients of an interior world, a landscape of the mind to which the poetry gives shape and meaning."Doctor of Philosophy
43
Rieth, Homer Manfred. "A locale of the cosmos : an epic of the Wimmera : exegesis and text." Thesis, University of Ballarat, 2006. http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/38812.
Full textAbstract:
"This project has, for its central component, an epic poem, 'A locale of the cosmos'. The accompanying exegesis examines epic as an ancient, but continually evolving form. It argues that, as a contemporary example of the genre and, as a sustained poetic rumination on landscape and memory, 'A locale of the cosmos' represents a significant development within the modern tradition of autobiographical epic. In broader terms, 'A locale of the cosmos' privileges the landscape and history of a region of Australia, the Wimmera region of north-western Victoria and, in doing so, explores the cumulative effects of the physical environment as a site for sustained poetic treatment. The poem is, therefore, an epic of both historical narrative and philosophical reflection, giving meaning to and interpreting ideas of space, place and locale. "Furthermore, it explores, in particular, the psychological and spiritual effects of vast horizontal distances, created by a landscape in which endless plains and immense horizons form an analogue of the wider cosmos. The poem's themes, therefore, bear not only on the prominences of the visible locale, but also explore the salients of an interior world, a landscape of the mind to which the poetry gives shape and meaning."Doctor of Philosophy
44
Rieth, Homer Manfred. "A locale of the cosmos : an epic of the Wimmera : exegesis and text." University of Ballarat, 2006. http://archimedes.ballarat.edu.au:8080/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/15383.
Full textAbstract:
"This project has, for its central component, an epic poem, 'A locale of the cosmos'. The accompanying exegesis examines epic as an ancient, but continually evolving form. It argues that, as a contemporary example of the genre and, as a sustained poetic rumination on landscape and memory, 'A locale of the cosmos' represents a significant development within the modern tradition of autobiographical epic. In broader terms, 'A locale of the cosmos' privileges the landscape and history of a region of Australia, the Wimmera region of north-western Victoria and, in doing so, explores the cumulative effects of the physical environment as a site for sustained poetic treatment. The poem is, therefore, an epic of both historical narrative and philosophical reflection, giving meaning to and interpreting ideas of space, place and locale. "Furthermore, it explores, in particular, the psychological and spiritual effects of vast horizontal distances, created by a landscape in which endless plains and immense horizons form an analogue of the wider cosmos. The poem's themes, therefore, bear not only on the prominences of the visible locale, but also explore the salients of an interior world, a landscape of the mind to which the poetry gives shape and meaning."Doctor of Philosophy
45
Petrella, Bernardo Ballesteros. "Divine assemblies in early Greek and Mesopotamian narrative poetry." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:cfd1affe-f74b-48c5-98db-aba832a7dce8.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis charts divine assembly scenes in ancient Mesopotamian narrative poetry and the early Greek hexameter corpus, and aims to contribute to a cross-cultural comparison in terms of literary systems. The recurrent scene of the divine gathering is shown to underpin the construction of small- and large-scale compositions in both the Sumero-Akkadian and early Greek traditions. Parts 1 and 2 treat each corpus in turn, reflecting a methodological concern to assess the comparanda within their own context first. Part 1 (Chapters 1-4) examines Sumerian narrative poems, and the Akkadian narratives Atra-hsīs, Anzû, Enûma eliš, Erra and Išum and the Epic of Gilgameš. Part 2 (Chapters 5-8) considers Homer's Iliad, the Odyssey, the Homeric Hymns and Hesiod's Theogony. The comparative approaches in Part 3 are developed in two chapters (9-10). Chapter 9 offers a detailed comparison of this typical scene's poetic morphology and compositional purpose. Relevant techniques and effects, a function of the aural reception of literature, are shown to overlap to a considerable degree. Although the Greeks are unlikely to have taken over the feature from the Near East, it is suggested that the Greek divine assembly is not to be detached form a Near Eastern context. Because the shared elements are profoundly embedded in the Greek orally-derived poetic tradition, it is possible to envisage a long-term process of oral contact and communication fostered by common structures. Chapter 10 turns to a comparison of the literary pantheon: a focus on the organisation of divine prerogatives and the chief god figures illuminates culture-specific differences which can be related to historical socio-political conditions. Thus, this thesis seeks to enhance our understanding of the representation of the gods in Mesopotamian poetry and early Greek epic, and develops a systemic approach to questions of transmission and cultural appreciation.
46
Woodcock, Mathew. "Renaissance elf-fashioning : the rhetoric of fairy in Spenser's The Faerie Queene." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.365457.
Full text
47
Barnes, Michael H. "Inscribed kleos : aetiological contexts in Apolonius of Rhodes /." free to MU campus, to others for purchase, 2003. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/mo/fullcit?p3091898.
Full text
48
Romero, Anaya Jesus. "Individualidad de la "Historia de la nueva Mexico", de Gaspar de Villagra, en el contexto de la epica indiana." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/186119.
Full textAbstract:
The Historia de la Nueva Mexico, by Gaspar Perez de Villagra, has been one of the less studied epic poems in Hispanic American literary criticism. The purpose of this study is to show the text's literary characteristics and justify its inclusion within the tradition of Ariosto's romanzi, which was earlier followed by La Araucana, paradigm of the epic discourse in Hispanic America. The analysis borrows from a structuralist-narratologic methodology developed in the works of Gerard Genette, Felix Martinez Bonatti, Cedomil Goic and Julia Kristeva. The study begins with the analysis of the different definitions of 'epic genre' from Aristotle and Horatio to the twentieth century and the theories of Genette about architextuality. Once establishing the definitions, the study proceeds to differentiate between the two generic variants: the romance and the epic. The purpose here is to show that the principles of textual disposition applied by epic authors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Hispanic America belong to the romance, and this gives the discourse a very distinct structural physiognomy. A comparative analysis of some of the best known epic poems in Hispanic America show their structural singularity, as well as their inclusion within Ariosto's tradition. The texts analyzed are: Arauco domado, Peregrino indiano, Puren indomito, Argentina y Conquista del Rio de la Plata, La Christiada, and Bernardo. In Chapter Four the study centers on the transtextual relationships established between La Araucana and Villagra's poem, which determine the individuality of the Historia de la Nueva Mexico and its inclusion within the Hispanic American literary canon. The poem's uniqueness is based on its peculiar narrative structure, the hypertextual relationship it maintains with the Ercillan paradigm, as well as the juxtaposition of codes that determine an intertextual space. This space is the aesthetic image of ideological tensions in the narrator's perspective. It is the tensions which place both the narrator and the text within the ideological and artistic parameters of the Baroque period.
49
Johns-Putra, Adeline. "Heroes and housewives : women's epic poetry and domestic ideology in the Romantic age, 1770-1835 /." Berlin ; New York : P. Lang, 2001. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb39227702p.
Full text
50
DiLorenzo, Kate. ""To share in the roses of Pieria" relationships to the Muses' gift in the epic poets and Sappho /." Diss., Connect to the thesis, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/10066/1475.
Full text