Literary Histories (200-0-20)
Topic
Epic Failures and Epic Successes
Instructors
William N West
Meeting Info
Harris Hall L28: Tues, Thurs 2:00PM - 3:20PM
Overview of class
In the era of Snapchat and TikTok, epic has entered the urban dictionary. As the genre of what Milton called "heroic song," though, epic predates even the invention of writing, and is perhaps the oldest form of poetic production. What has allowed such epic success? The persistence of epic through cultural and linguistic change is one of the form's central themes: how can words heroically uttered and deeds heroically dared be passed on from one lifetime to those that follow? How are they transformed? What does it mean to take up as one's own something that has been passed down from a culture no longer present? Such questions become even more pressing in moments when one culture encounters another and in its new context must confront what to retain, what to adopt, and what to invent. In this course we will consider how epic narrative projects, recalls, and reworks its history as tradition. Benefitting from several recent translations of epic poems by women, we will consider the role of gender in epic. Finally, we will look at contemporary epics that push back against the histories that have often been associated with the genre and find new themes in the form.
Learning Objectives
Students will become acquainted with the principal formal features of the genre of epic through the study of a number of representative works in the genre. In addition they will be introduced to some theories of epic, both current and historical. They will learn something of the genre's history of self-reflection, cultural contexts within which epic appears, and some of the cultural uses to which epic has been set. They will consider how epic differs from two other long narrative forms, novel and romance. Using these materials, they will sharpen critical argumentation skills orally and in writing.
Class Materials (Required)
Homer, Iliad (transl. Wilson); Vergil, Aeneid (transl. Bartsch); Beowulf (transl. Headley); Milton, Paradise Lost; Atwood, The Penelopiad; Wolcott, Omeros; as well as selections from other epic poems
Class Attributes
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area