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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Epic'
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1
Clemenzi-Allen, Benjamin. "Epic." PDXScholar, 2013. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/983.
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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.
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McGlynn, Michael Patrick. "Epic and law : a theory of epic /." view abstract or download file of text, 2004. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p3147827.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2004.Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 440 -459). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.
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Burkitt, Katharine Helen. "Epic proportions : post-epic verse-novels and postcolonial critique." Thesis, University of Salford, 2007. http://usir.salford.ac.uk/26600/.
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My thesis is based on the premise that verse-novels occupy a marginalised and contested position in contemporary literature: as they tread the generic boundaries of poetry and prose writing, they are always marked by their incongruous nature. This makes for uncomfortable reading as expectations are disrupted and undermined, and, for the poet, the adoption of the verse-novel form becomes both a risky and consciously political move. Each of the verse-novels that I consider is self-conscious of its anomalous generic affiliations and utilises them in order to replicate the postcolonial politics of the text. These texts all engage with the verse-novel form in different ways and draw attention to its problematic and marginal nature. This is used to highlight their postcolonial nature, as they are all concerned with matters of racial and national identity in a world where these categories are complicated. The commonality in these works is their relationships with epic form, in this thesis I identify this as a post-epic mode of writing. My study is based on the relationship between poetic form and postcolonial critique; it focuses upon three texts: the Australian poet Les Murray's Fredy Neptune, the Canadian poet Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red, and British writer Bernardine Evaristo's The Emperor's Babe. These texts and their authors call for a reconsideration of postcolonialism; this is both demonstrative of a conceptual shift towards global notions of identity, whilst also being problematic in terms of the political commitment of the texts. Each of these works demonstrates an awareness of the contradictory nature of their positions as they shy away from Utopian visions. In line with this, my aim is to demonstrate the way in which the self-reflexive employment of experimental poetry compliments an engagement with the transformative aspect of contemporary postcolonial politics.
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Power, Michael O'Neill, and mopower@ozemail com au. "Transportation and Homeric Epic." The Australian National University. Faculty of Arts, 2006. http://thesis.anu.edu.au./public/adt-ANU20070502.011543.
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This thesis investigates the impact of transportation the phenomenon of being miles away while receiving a narrative on audience response. The poetics of narrative reception within the Homeric epics are described and the correspondences with the psychological concept of transportation are used to suggest the appropriateness and utility of this theory to understanding audience
responses in and to the Iliad and Odyssey. The ways in which transportation complements and extends some concepts of narrative reception familiar to Homeric studies (the Epic Illusion, Vividness, and Enchantment) are considered, as are the ways in which the psychological theories might be adjusted to accommodate Homeric epic. A major claim is drawn from these theories that
transportation fundamentally affects the audiences interpretation of and responses to the narrative; this claim is tested both theoretically and empirically in terms of ambiguous characterization of Odysseus and the Kyklōps Polyphēmos in
the ninth book of the Odyssey. Last, some consideration is given to the ways in which the theory (and its underlying empirical research) might be extended.
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Sapsford, Francesca May. "The 'epic' of Martial." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2012. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/3671/.
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This thesis explores the composition and arrangement of Martial’s twelve-book series, the Epigrams. I investigate the way in which key themes combine to create a pseudo-narrative for the reader to follow which connects not only individual books but the series as a whole. This twelve-book series creates an ’anti-epic’, something which is meant to be considered as a whole and read, and reread, as such. In the course of investigating the inter- and intratextual links within the Epigrams, we see how Martial’s corpus instructs its reader on how (and even where) to read the text. In doing so Martial is engaging with a literary discourse at the end of the first century on different patterns of reading. The key themes explored, oral sex and os impurum, food and dining, and a literary theme comprised of reading and writing, all form part of this programmatic literary instruction to the reader. I have identified the importance of ’orality’ within the Epigrams as part of the defined method of reading. Applying concepts from Reader-Response theory,and thinking about the way readers read, we can see that Martial’s books of epigrams are more than the sum of their parts.
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Foster, Hubert Wakefield. "Catullus' Attis counterfeit epic /." Diss., Columbia, Mo. : University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10355/5975.
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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.
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Horrell, Matthew Aaron. "Epic hyperbole in Homer." Diss., University of Iowa, 2017. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/5777.
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Few works have created such memorable characters as the Iliad and Odyssey. Readers come away from these works with the impression that the characters described in the stories are larger than life: Achilles is strong, Ajax is enormous, Patroclus is bloodthirsty, Nestor is ancient, Stentor is loud. Nobody leaves Homer’s epics thinking his heroes are not worthy of their lasting fame.
This study argues that, although the heroes of the two Homeric epics are meant to be impressive, their characterization in the Iliad and Odyssey is the result of a process of rationalization whereby the hyperbole traditionally ascribed to such figures was toned down when the two poems were finally committed to writing. I argue this by showing that the hyperbole used to describe these heroes is paralleled across many Indo-European epic traditions and that, for the most part, it is much more exaggerated in these related epics. From the scant remains of the Epic Cycle, there is reason to believe that the context in which Homeric poetry was formed was receptive to the fantastic. The best explanation of these two pieces of data is that the Iliad and the Odyssey rationalize traditional hyperbole. This was done so that the poems would have a broader appeal and greater clarity, vividness, and simplicity, traits which have long been considered hallmarks of Homer’s style.
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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.
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Callaway, Cathy L. "The oath in epic poetry /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/11449.
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Burrow, Colin. "Epic romance : Homer to Milton /." Oxford : Clarendon Press, 2001. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0604/92045882-d.html.
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Hawtree, Laura Joy. "Wild animals in Roman epic." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10036/3469.
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Roman epic authors extended, reinvented and created new wild animal representations that stood apart from traditional Greek epic renderings. The treatment of wild animals in seven Roman epics (Virgil’s Aeneid, Lucan’s Civil War, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Statius’ Thebaid and Achilleid, Valerius’ Argonautica and Silius’ Punica) forms the basis of this thesis, but the extensive study of other relevant works such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and Apollonius’ Argonautica allows greater insight into traditional Greek renderings and throws Roman developments into starker contrast. Initial stages of research involved collection and detailed examination of almost 900 epic references to wild animals. The findings from this preliminary research were analysed in the context of Pliny’s Natural History, Aristotle’s Historia Animalium, and other ancient works that reveal the Greeks’ and Romans’ views of wild animals. The accumulation of such a range of evidence made it possible for patterns of development to become evident. This thesis focuses on the epic representation of animals and considers a number of questions: 1) How Roman epic authors represented animals’ emotions and employed creatures’ thought processes. 2) How Roman epic authors examined the difference between wild and tame animals and manipulated the differences and similarities between humans and animals and culture and nature. 3) How wild animals were aligned with scientific and cultural beliefs that were particular to Roman society. 4) How animals were employed to signify foreign countries and how some epic animals came to be symbolic of nations. 5) How Roman epic authors represented particular aspects of animal behaviours with fresh insight, sometimes ignoring traditional representations and historiographic sources.
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Macleod, Eilidh. "Linguistic evidence for Mycenaean epic." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/14497.
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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.
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DeForest, Mary. "Apollonius' "Argonautica" : a Callimachean epic /." Leiden : E. J. Brill, 1994. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb36680528n.
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Vodoklys, Edward J. "Blame-expression in the epic tradition." New York : Garland, 1992. http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/25130912.html.
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Akin, Esra. "Mustafa Âli's Epic deeds of artists." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1181502871.
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Burrow, Colin John. "The English humanist epic 1580-1614." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.359594.
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Hershkowitz, Debra. "Madness in Greek and Latin epic." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.296228.
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Paul, Joanna. "Film and the classical epic tradition." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.422609.
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GUILBAUD, PAULO FREDERICO TELLES FERREIRA. "THE EPIC IN GRANDE SERTÃO: VEREDAS." PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2003. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=3831@1.
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Na discussão de gêneros na obra de João Guimarães Rosa,
onde entra o épico? O objetivo do trabalho é desvendar o
que pode ser chamado de épico, já que é comum a crítica
assim se referir a este romance de Rosa. É também analisar
a presença, ou não, de outros gêneros literários
consagrados na obra. Diferenças básicas e semelhanças entre
este romance e a Ilíada e a Odisséia. Que tipo de herói é
Riobaldo? O trabalho procura do mesmo modo, cercar este
herói complexo, capaz até de atos bastante questionáveis,
no cenário das tipificações tradicionais dos heróis.In the discussion of gender in the work of João Guimarães Rosa, where does the gender epic fit? The purpose of this paper is to disclose what could be denote epic, as this Guimarães´ novel is usually refered in the literary review; and also, to analyze the presence, or not, of other literary acclaimed genders. Basic differences and resemblances between this novel and The Iliad and The Odyssey are highlighted. What kind of hero is Riobaldo? This paper describes this complex hero capable of questionable acts, in the setting of traditional typifications of heroes.
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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.
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Shakhray, Maria <1986>. "Between Epic and History: European epic poems of the XVIth - XVIIth centuries on Lepanto and the Reconquista." Doctoral thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2018. http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/8669/1/shakhray_maria_tesi.pdf.
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The present work is devoted to the investigation of the new category of the epic genre that appeared and evolved in the period between the end of the Cinquecento - the second half of the Seicento – the one comprising epic poems treating facts of contemporary historical reality. The thesis concerns itself namely with the epic texts dedicated to the culminating military conflicts of the Oriental war (notably, the Battle of Lepanto, 1571) and such crucial events of the Reconquista as the Conquest of Granada (1492) and the Rebellion of the Alpujarras (1568-1571). The selected texts belong to the Italian, Spanish and French epic traditions, the main objectives of the research being the ones of providing a thorough analysis of the texts in question with special emphasis upon the relationship of the marvellous and the historical elements, as well as the allegorical dichotomy of absolute good and absolute evil, the final chapter being entirely devoted to the issue of the ‘demonic’ figure of the ‘Other’ seen through the prism of the age-long struggle of the Christian and the Islamic civilisations.
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Pollard, Alison. "Carmen heroum : Greek epic in Roman friezes." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:1bd394a8-200e-48c7-b7b4-e1e7cabd39e0.
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Roman wallpainting has been the subject of innumerable studies from the eighteenth century to the present day, but the epic-themed friezes of Late Republican and Early Imperial Italy have been comparatively neglected throughout this history of scholarship. This thesis therefore seeks to examine the three painted and stucco Iliad friezes from Pompeii, all found on the Via dell'Abbondanza, and the Odyssey frescoes from a house on the Esquiline in Rome, as four examples of a type which had a long history in the Graeco-Roman world, even if their survival in the archaeological record is scant. The primary aim of the study is to understand each frieze in the knowledge of how they might have been regarded in antiquity, as elucidated in Pausanias' commentaries on Polygnotus' Iliupersis and Nekyia frescoes in Delphi, and to understand their extra-textual insertions and spelling discrepancies not as artistic errors but as reflections of the geographical and chronological contexts in which the friezes were displayed. Through detailed study of their iconography and epigraphy, alongside contemporary writers' discussion of the epic genre and its specific concerns for a Roman audience, this study aims to show that the most fruitful course of enquiry pertaining to the friezes lies not in an argument about whether they are entirely faithful to the Homeric epics or depart from them in puzzling ways, but in the observation that reliance on the text and free play on it go hand in hand as part of the epic reception-culture within which these paintings belong.
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Rosenblatt, Kelly Jane. "The Eighteenth-Century Georgic as Didactic Epic." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/19201.
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This dissertation examines the eighteenth-century English georgic in the broader context of the didactic epic. Reading "georgics" through the schema of didactic epic, I provide an alternative trajectory for understanding developments in and experiments with genre during the long eighteenth century. More than swapping parallel terminology my use of didactic epic imports the scholarship of Classical and neo-Latin scholars to reinvigorate a genre hampered by defining the "georgic" as poems about farming, derived exclusively from Virgil's Georgics. Within the framework of didactic epic, I reinterpret peripheral works such as John Gay's Trivia, Eliza Haywood's Anti-Pamela, and James Grainger's The Sugar Cane claiming these queer, fascinating texts represent critical experimentation with literary form in the eighteenth century. I contend that the incorporation of didactic epic elements into these texts demonstrates the plasticity and persistence of the genre thereby making the study of these foundational English texts and their Classical and neo-Latin sources an integral part of English literary studies.
I argue the essays, poems, and novels of Joseph Addison, John Philips, John Gay, Eliza Haywood, and James Grainger dialogue with Classical and neo-Latin poems in addition to Virgil's Georgics such as Manilius's Astronomica, Fracastoro's Syphilis, and more-canonical Classical didactic epics from the Ars Poetica of Horace to Lucretius's De Rerum Natura. Because the separation of didactic and narrative epic derived from reliance on "georgic" has promoted a too-easy separation between the natural world (georgic) and the human world (epic), scholarship has approached English didactic epics as poems that have little bearing on humans and culture. However, analyzing the formal modulations I describe how eighteenth-century texts showcase radical experimentation with narrative persona and polyphonic registers thereby magnifying the presence of human beings in the natural world as organizers and consumers of the landscape and useable land. In the experimentations evident in eighteenth-century English texts, I locate innovations and modulations of the didactic epic that demonstrate the authors variously dissecting and critiquing ideologies of labor and imperialism and offering new paradigms of gender and labor that anticipate modern approaches to literary forms and modern concerns with the interrelation of humans and nature.
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Goode, Catherine Felicity. "Genealogical history and character in Homeric epic." Thesis, Durham University, 2015. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/11352/.
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This thesis examines how individual characterisation in the Homeric poems is informed by and reflects the traditional narrative of genealogical history which is embedded in the early hexameter tradition. By reading specific characters in the context of their place in traditional history, I move closer to how they may have been received by their earliest audiences, while also interpreting them as individual mimetic characters as may be found in a work of written literature. My aim is to demonstrate that large-scale patterns which can be seen across the hexameter tradition have relevance to the small-scale details which create a compelling character in an individual poem. In part I of the thesis I examine how the Hesiodic and Homeric poems present a narrative of cosmic history which is structured by certain repeated patterns of change over each generation. Over a vast and unspecified period of time, men become gradually more distant from the gods, and are physically weaker; but this is balanced by social strengthening and an increasing awareness of justice. Although the different poems of the hexameter tradition articulate this history in different ways, they share an awareness of these patterns. In part II I examine how this traditional narrative of genealogical history can help us to understand three Homeric characters, chosen as particularly fruitful examples because they mark crucial changes in genealogical history. I argue that the characterisation of the Homeric Helen reflects her role in the wider tradition as an instrument of Zeus’ plan to destroy the heroes, and this is one reason why she is depicted as so detached, isolated, and as uttering uniquely vehement expressions of self-hatred. I then examine the characters of Penelope and Telemachus, both of whom are subject to the competing imperatives of traditional patterns of change on the one hand, and Odysseus’ inevitable return on the other hand. While Penelope’s struggles to suspend the passage of time in her husband’s absence are rewarded on his return, Telemachus’ partial but incomplete transition to manhood leaves him frustrated. The traditional patterns of genealogical history have varying effects on each of these three characters, but in each case I show that we can gain a fuller and more coherent understanding of their presentation by placing them in the context of that wider tradition.
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Kneebone, Emily Sarah. "Epic, ethics and empire : rethinking Oppian's Halieutica." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2012. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/283893.
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Power, Henry Charles Josiah. "Tom Jones, appetite, and the epic tradition." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2006. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/284054.
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Frangoulidis, Stavros Antonios. "Epic imitation in the Metamorphoses of Apuleius /." The Ohio State University, 1990. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu148767844425807.
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Manioti, Nikoletta. "All-female family bonds in Latin epic." Thesis, Durham University, 2012. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3523/.
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This thesis deals with the representation of all-female family bonds in Virgil’s "Aeneid", Ovid’s "Metamorphoses", Valerius Flaccus’ "Argonautica" and Statius’ "Thebaid". The themes of sisterly unanimity, love and marriage, loss and mourning, and storytelling, provide the framework within which I investigate the literary models in epic, tragedy and other genres, of each episode featuring all-female interaction. Furthermore, I demonstrate how the Roman ideal of unanimity is combined with the Apollonian representation of Medea and Chalciope in the portrayal of Dido and Anna in Virgil, which then provides the basis for four often more extreme pairs of unanimae sorores in Latin epic. The final one in the series, consisting of the sisters-in-law Argia and Antigone, attests to a very Roman view about the power of adoptive relationships. In the same vein, the stories of Amata and Lavinia, and Ceres and Proserpina, are constructed around the Roman mother’s expectations of her role in her daughter’s marriage, while love stories including sisterly interference characterised by envy can be compared to specific examples of legendary Roman women. Roman mourning practices are present in all instances of heroines losing a mother, daughter or sister, and a specific analogy to the lament for Marcellus is identified in the Ovidian myth of Clymene and the Heliades. The suicide of Ismene after Jocasta’s similar death, on the other hand, corresponds to the idea of a Roman daughter following the example set by her mother taken to its limits. Finally, sister storytellers behave similarly to Roman matrons while the stories they tell are once again influenced by the interaction of Ovid’s contemporary women. Overall, I show how these epics can indirectly offer an insight into the lives of Roman women by modelling their mythical heroines both on literary tradition and on contemporary Roman ideals and practices.
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Crawford, Karie. "Turbulent times : epic fantasy in adolescent literature /." Diss., CLICK HERE for online access, 2002. http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/ETD/image/etd41.pdf.
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Haubold, Johannes. "Homer's people : epic poetry and social formation /." Cambridge : Cambridge University, 2000. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/cam023/99037676.html.
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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.
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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.
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Crawford, Karie Eliza. "Turbulent Times: Epic Fantasy in Adolescent Literature." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2002. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/84.
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This thesis is a development of the theories presented by Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Bruno Bettelheim concerning archetypes, the anima/animus concept, the Hero Cycle, and identity development through fairy tales. I argue that there are vital rites of passage missing in Anglo-Saxon culture, and while bibliotherapy cannot replace them, it can help adolescents synthesize their experiences. The theories of Jung, Campbell, and Bettelheim demonstrate this concept by defining segments of the story and how they apply to the reader. Because of the applicability, readers, despite their age, can use the examples in the book to help reconcile their own experiences and understand life as it relates to them. The works I examine include J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy, and David Eddings' Belgariad. Though it is impossible to test the effects of reading such works on readers, the possibility of those effects exists. Bettelheim's work, The Uses of Enchantment, discusses similar themes and he provides scientific support through his use of anecdotal evidence. Following his example, I have tried to include evidence from my own life that exemplifies the effect reading epic fantasy has had on me.
The aspects of epic fantasy in relation to going through adolescence I examine include the concept of responsibility and its relation to progress and maturity; gaining a social identity; and reconciling oneself to the dark side within and without, in society. These aspects are found within the superstructure of the Hero Cycle and the actions and motivations of the characters—archetypes—within the cycle. They are also present in real life and necessary concepts to understand to be accepted into society as a mature contributor.
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Dinter, Martin Tobias. "Lucan's epic body : corporeality in the Bellum Civile." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2006. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/251995.
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Lüddecke, Kathrin L. G. "The beginnings of narrative closure in Homeric epic." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.312611.
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Matthews, S. "Blake's long poems and the contemporary epic revival." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.371688.
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McFadyen, Johnny. "Arthur in medieval Latin : chronicle, epic and romance." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.633118.
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This dissertation investigates the character and use of Arthurian narratives in medieval Latin literature, with particular emphasis on the socio-political, ideological and literary functions they were designed to serve. It focuses on a little-known assortment of writings from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, contextualising Latin Arthurian material with analyses of contemporary history and literary culture. It begins with a re-evaluation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's role in'the development of Arthurian literature, especially his influence on Latin historiography and medieval romance, evaluating what I perceive to be a noticeable shift in register between his earlier work, Historia Regum Britanniae, and his later poem, Vita Merlini. I argue that the later work anticipates the rise of romance writing, and also consider it in relation to the emergence of the individual in twelfth-century literature. The dissertation then examines a number of understudied Latin Arthurian works, through individual case studies, in order to demonstrate the varied and interesting uses that post-Galfridian writers found for the Arthurian legend. The study of this heterogeneous collection of texts is intended to produce a deeper understanding and appreciation of Latin Arthuriana and to reassess its position in relation to the wider literary canon. A short conclusion also establishes some connections between these Latin texts and vernacular literature, and calls for further investigation into the relationship between these two linguistic traditions.
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Green, N. L. "Satanic rebellion in the seventeenth-century English epic." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.599653.
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My thesis is that many political events and developments of the seventeenth century were subject matter of varying degrees of directness for the demonic scenes of many English epic poems. Also, a number of crucial antithesis - such as those between God and Satan, Heaven and Hell, good and evil, light and dark, virtue and vice - could be used by epic poets to structure their contemporary references. I consider how and why the rebellious forces of evil in certain poems - principally Satan and his servants - were connected to the century's political and religious controversies and polemics. In the Introduction I set down my aims and methods of procedure, and the areas in which I hope to make an original contribution to scholarship. In Chapter 1 I discuss the connections made between the demonic and politics in a number of epic poems written before the seventeenth century, as many of the features and techniques of seventeenth-century epic are prefigured in the earlier tradition. For example, I discuss Claudian and Tasso and how their poems provided models for later writers as regards the interaction of humans and devils in real conflicts. In Chapter 2 I focus upon Phineas Fletcher's Locusts, or Apollyonists (1627) and a number of other epics, such as Sir William Alexander's Dooms-day (1637), which deal briefly or at length with the Gunpowder Plot of November 1605 and, crucially, emphasize its infernal origins. In Chapter 3 I use Thomas Heywood's Hierarchie of the blessed Angells (1635) as a way into discussing biblical epics, such as Lucy Hutchinson's Order and Disorder (1679), and their relation of the underworld to contemporary concerns. In Chapter 4 I deal with three epics of the English Civil War - Joseph Beaumont's Psyche (1648; 1702), Edward Benlowes's Theophila (1652), and Abraham Cowley's unfinished Civil War - and a number of epics of the Restoration and after, such as Andrew Cooper's Stratologia (1660) and Sir Richard Blackmore's Prince Arthur (1695). In Chapter 5 I probe the relationship between the satanic scenes of Milton's Paradise Lost (1667) and the Civil War and Restoration years, with frequent recourse to Milton's own prose controversies.
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Rader, J. Patrick. "Journey to the Scars: A White Trash Epic." Master's thesis, University of Central Florida, 2007. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/3336.
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Inspired by the work of writers Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe and motivated by celebrity prevaricator James Frey, Journey to the Scars: A White Trash Epic is a memoir that attempts to redefine the genre by applying the ideals and themes of gonzo and new journalism. The opening chapter, "The Diary of John Doe Frankenstein" tells the story of a pivotal event in the author's life. Immediately following this narrative of a near fatal motorcycle accident, the author/narrator's reliability is called into question and the remainder of the memoir is the story of the author's efforts to uncover the truth about himself, and more importantly, the events and motivating forces that led to the author's almost Near Death Experience. Starting with a nonjudgmental look at the life of his parents before he was born, our unreliable narrator/author hopes to improve the reader's opinion of himself while also uncovering the true stories behind all the fictional ones he's been telling himself and others his entire life. As he learns more about where he came from, he begins to try to understand why he has made some of the decisions in his own life. Life is one long party for James Patrick Makowski and he shares his experiences not as a victim of his choices, but as a lonely man who just doesn't want to be left off of any of Life's guest lists. In a final attempt to improve his credibility with the reader, the author retells the story of his accident with as much focus on factual detail and verifiable events as possible. His select poems reveal his attempts at emotional honesty while appending documentation is included for the purposes of veracity. Treating himself as a hostile witness, the narrator/author goes on to share the development of his literary integrity when he meets the most honest person he has ever met--the drug dealing Dog. "Tales of the Dog" summarizes the author/narrator's attempts to improve his credibility and why this quest has been so important to him. Journey to the Scars: A White Trash Epic is the gonzo story of one man's efforts to be his own messiah. The author/narrator, after realizing that his life to date has been in large part the result of his efforts to forget his past, J Patrick Rader begins his efforts to remember his.M.F.A.
Department of English
Arts and Humanities
Creative Writing MFA
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Russell, James. "Past glories : the historical epic in contemporary Hollywood." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.426950.
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Lambrou, I. "Homer and the Epic Cycle : dialogue and challenge." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2015. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1462583/.
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In this thesis, we revisit a longstanding problem, the relationship between Homer and the fragmentarily preserved post-Homeric narrative poems of the so-called Epic Cycle. The approach adopted has affinities with the school of criticism known as Neoanalysis, which, originating in continental Europe as an alternative to the Parry- Lord oral-formulaic theory, sought to explain irregularities found in the Homeric text by assuming re-contextualisation of motifs taken from pre-Homeric epics which were often identified with either written versions or the oral predecessors of the Cyclic epics. Rather than Quellenforschung, however, our emphasis is on Homer‟s interactive engagement with the mythopoetic traditions which were eventually crystallised in the Epic Cycle. And where scholars have so far tended to focus on the inadequacies of the Cyclic epics in the form in which we have them or to consider the complexity that the poems exhibit in presenting Achilles and Odysseus to be later development, our interest is less in the epics themselves, either as aesthetic or as cultural phenomena, than in the poetic strategy through which the Homeric poet, in seeking to position himself within a competitive context of an oral performance culture, engages with this traditional complexity creatively, both synergistically and agonistically. CHAPTER ONE sets the scene by exploring what one may call circumstantial or situational rivalry between epic poets and, on the basis of a review of the evidence, both ancient and comparative, proposes that the circumstances of an early singer- poet were such that they encouraged the emergence of a high degree of competitive interaction among known individuals with a strong interest in personal fame. CHAPTERS TWO and THREE, shifting their focus from context to texture, explore how complex and manifold mythopoetic traditions about Achilles and Odysseus find their way into the narrative fabric of the Iliad and the Odyssey, respectively, through a sophisticated and self-reflexive type of poetic interaction that includes both compliance and contestation with the wider epic tradition. The competitive dimension of early epic storytelling has in the recent past been either overemphasised or seriously underestimated. This thesis argues that early epic competition, though much less pronounced than often assumed, is reflected in the artistically ambitious refining and distillation process that the Iliad and the Odyssey develop in adjusting divergent mythological and poetic traditions to their own idiosyncratic presentation of Achilles and Odysseus. A close intra-generic reading of the Homeric text and the fragments of the Epic Cycle in the light of suggestive evidence we have for the phenomenon of epic competitiveness can ultimately contribute to a critical understanding of the dynamics of the early Greek epic performance and of Homer‟s position within it.
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Anderson, Zoë. "Nationhood and epic romance : Sidney, Spenser and Ariosto." Thesis, University of York, 2001. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/10797/.
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Stefanidou, Agapi. "The Reception of epic Kleos in Greek Tragedy." The Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1386695983.
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Saylor, Carol Clough. "That other Heracles : Yeat's counter epic of Cuchulain /." Full-text version available from OU Domain via ProQuest Digital Dissertations, 1987.
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Annavini, Silvia. "Intertextuality and Intratextuality in the Pessoan Epic: Mensagem." Doctoral thesis, University of Trento, 2011. http://eprints-phd.biblio.unitn.it/464/1/Tesi_definitiva.pdf.
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The thesis is articulated in three main chapters which try to explore how the dynamics of intertextuality is translatable, within the Pessoan oevre, also in an intratextual manner. Actually, I tried to explore progressively how the system of literary genres combines with the Pessoan introjection and subversion of literary genres and models.
In the first chapter I focused on the relationships between the Sebastianist myth and the Portuguese imperialism both from a diachronic and synchronous perspective trying to pinpoint the consequences this issues acquire in a literary ambit. I took under consideration the relationship with the Camonian epic model and attempted to demonstrate that the revision of the Camoes' pattern stems from a much profounder need to revise the Lusitanian imperialistic ideal. Moreover, I have also scrutinezed the presence and the echoes of the European historical avant-gardes affecting Alvaro De Campos' Odes' epic tendencies.
The second chapter is more centered on the influence of some Victorian poets upon Mensagem's texturing and which is mainly perceivable through the analysis of some Victorian devises such as the use of "persona" developped by a few Victorian poets such as Robert Browning and futher on amplified by some modernist poets such as T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound for instance and, emblematically exasperated by Pessoa in his distinguishing heteronymia. Interestingly, this feature reveals itself particularly pivotal to Mensagem's structuring as it affects the Pessoan weaving of his Luistanian modernist epic as well.
In the third chapter, I took under consideration the influence of brief genres upon Mensagem, some of which are typical of Classicism, such as epitaphs, epigrams, and epitaphs on Pessoa's epic imaginary. Furthermore, in spite of the undeniable ascendancy of fragment upon the Pessoan production, the bewitchment for classicism Pessoa shows in many critical essays finds a concrete form by the poetics of Antonio Mora, Alberto Caieiro and Ricardo Reis but also offers a possible interpretative chink in Mensagem as well.
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Kellermann, Alan Michael. "Columbus Day." Thesis, Swansea University, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.678545.
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Haenni, Jacques-Olivier. "Architecture EPIC et jeux d'instructions multimédias pour applications cryptographiques /." [S.l.] : [s.n.], 2002. http://library.epfl.ch/theses/?nr=2540.
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Kanjilal, Sucheta. "Modern Mythologies: The Epic Imagination in Contemporary Indian Literature." Scholar Commons, 2017. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6875.
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This project delineates a cultural history of modern Hinduism in conversation with contemporary Indian literature. Its central focus is literary adaptations of the Sanskrit epic the Mahābhārata, in English, Hindi, and Bengali. Among Hindu religious texts, this epic has been most persistently reproduced in literary and popular discourses because its scale matches the grandeur of the Indian national imagining. Further, many epic adaptations explicitly invite devotion to the nation, often emboldening conservative Hindu nationalism. This interdisciplinary project draws its methodology from literary theory, history, gender, and religious studies. Little scholarship has put Indian Anglophone literatures in conversation with other Indian literary traditions. To fill this gap, I chart a history of literary and cultural transactions between both India and Britain and among numerous vernacular, classical, and Anglophone traditions within India. Paying attention to gender, caste, and cultural hegemony, I demostrate how epic adaptations both narrate and contest the contours of the Indian nation.
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Kiriwat, Amolwan. "Khon: masked dance drama of the Thai epic Ramakien." Fogler Library, University of Maine, 2001. http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/KiriwatAX2001.pdf.
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Muto, Leisa M. "Body parts and their epic struggle in Ovid's Amores." Huntington, WV : [Marshall University Libraries], 2007. http://www.marshall.edu/etd/descript.asp?ref=809.
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Portnow, Allison Finson Jon W. "Epic time and narrativity in Jean Sibelius's Lemminkainen Suite." Chapel Hill, N.C. : University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007. http://dc.lib.unc.edu/u?/etd,884.
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Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007.Title from electronic title page (viewed Dec. 18, 2007). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Musicology in the Department of Music." Discipline: Music; Department/School: Music.