Speech Presentation in Homeric Epic

Speech Presentation in Homeric Epic PDF Author: Deborah Beck
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 0292738803
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 269

Get Book

Book Description
The Iliad and the Odyssey are emotional powerhouses largely because of their extensive use of direct speech. Yet this characteristic of the Homeric epics has led scholars to underplay the poems' use of non-direct speech, the importance of speech represented by characters, and the overall sophistication of Homeric narrative as measured by its approach to speech representation. In this pathfinding study by contrast, Deborah Beck undertakes the first systematic examination of all the speeches presented in the Homeric poems to show that Homeric speech presentation is a unified system that includes both direct quotation and non-direct modes of speech presentation. Drawing on the fields of narratology and linguistics, Beck demonstrates that the Iliad and the Odyssey represent speech in a broader and more nuanced manner than has been perceived before, enabling us to reevaluate our understanding of supposedly "modern" techniques of speech representation and to refine our idea of where Homeric poetry belongs in the history of Western literature. She also broadens ideas of narratology by connecting them more strongly with relevant areas of linguistics, as she uses both to examine the full range of speech representational strategies in the Homeric poems. Through this in-depth analysis of how speech is represented in the Homeric poems, Beck seeks to make both the process of their composition and the resulting poems themselves seem more accessible, despite pervasive uncertainties about how and when the poems were put together.

Speech Presentation in Homeric Epic

Speech Presentation in Homeric Epic PDF Author: Deborah Beck
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 0292738803
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 269

Get Book

Book Description
The Iliad and the Odyssey are emotional powerhouses largely because of their extensive use of direct speech. Yet this characteristic of the Homeric epics has led scholars to underplay the poems' use of non-direct speech, the importance of speech represented by characters, and the overall sophistication of Homeric narrative as measured by its approach to speech representation. In this pathfinding study by contrast, Deborah Beck undertakes the first systematic examination of all the speeches presented in the Homeric poems to show that Homeric speech presentation is a unified system that includes both direct quotation and non-direct modes of speech presentation. Drawing on the fields of narratology and linguistics, Beck demonstrates that the Iliad and the Odyssey represent speech in a broader and more nuanced manner than has been perceived before, enabling us to reevaluate our understanding of supposedly "modern" techniques of speech representation and to refine our idea of where Homeric poetry belongs in the history of Western literature. She also broadens ideas of narratology by connecting them more strongly with relevant areas of linguistics, as she uses both to examine the full range of speech representational strategies in the Homeric poems. Through this in-depth analysis of how speech is represented in the Homeric poems, Beck seeks to make both the process of their composition and the resulting poems themselves seem more accessible, despite pervasive uncertainties about how and when the poems were put together.

Orality, Textuality, and the Homeric Epics

Orality, Textuality, and the Homeric Epics PDF Author: Jonathan L. Ready
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019257194X
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 368

Get Book

Book Description
Written texts of the Iliad and the Odyssey achieved an unprecedented degree of standardization after 150 BCE, but what about Homeric texts prior to the emergence of standardized written texts? Orality, Textuality, and the Homeric Epics sheds light on that earlier history by drawing on scholarship from outside the discipline of classical studies to query from three different angles what it means to speak of Homeric poetry together with the word "text". Part I utilizes work in linguistic anthropology on oral texts and oral intertextuality to illuminate both the verbal and oratorical landscapes our Homeric poets fashion in their epics and what the poets were striving to do when they performed. Looking to folkloristics, part II examines modern instances of the textualization of an oral traditional work in order to reconstruct the creation of written versions of the Homeric poems through a process that began with a poet dictating to a scribe. Combining research into scribal activity in other cultures, especially in the fields of religious studies and medieval studies, with research into performance in the field of linguistic anthropology, part III investigates some of the earliest extant texts of the Homeric epics, the so-called wild papyri. By looking at oral texts, dictated texts, and wild texts, this volume traces the intricate history of Homeric texts from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period, long before the emergence of standardized written texts, in a comparative and interdisciplinary study that will benefit researchers in a number of disciplines across the humanities.

Homeric Speech and the Origins of Rhetoric

Homeric Speech and the Origins of Rhetoric PDF Author: Rachel Ahern Knudsen
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421412276
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 243

Get Book

Book Description
Knudsen argues that Homeric epics are the locus for the origins of rhetoric. Traditionally, Homer's epics have been the domain of scholars and students interested in ancient Greek poetry, and Aristotle's rhetorical theory has been the domain of those interested in ancient rhetoric. Rachel Ahern Knudsen believes that this academic distinction between poetry and rhetoric should be challenged. Based on a close analysis of persuasive speeches in the Iliad, Knudsen argues that Homeric poetry displays a systematic and technical concept of rhetoric and that many Iliadic speakers in fact employ the rhetorical techniques put forward by Aristotle. Rhetoric, in its earliest formulation in ancient Greece, was conceived as the power to change a listener’s actions or attitudes through words—particularly through persuasive techniques and argumentation. Rhetoric was thus a “technical” discipline in the ancient Greek world, a craft (technê) that was rule-governed, learned, and taught. This technical understanding of rhetoric can be traced back to the works of Plato and Aristotle, which provide the earliest formal explanations of rhetoric. But do such explanations constitute the true origins of rhetoric as an identifiable, systematic practice? If not, where does a technique-driven rhetoric first appear in literary and social history? Perhaps the answer is in Homeric epics. Homeric Speech and the Origins of Rhetoric demonstrates a remarkable congruence between the rhetorical techniques used by Iliadic speakers and those collected in Aristotle's seminal treatise on rhetoric. Knudsen's claim has implications for the fields of both Homeric poetry and the history of rhetoric. In the former field, it refines and extends previous scholarship on direct speech in Homer by identifying a new dimension within Homeric speech—namely, the consistent deployment of well-defined rhetorical arguments and techniques. In the latter field, it challenges the traditional account of the development of rhetoric, probing the boundaries that currently demarcate its origins, history, and relationship to poetry.

The Cambridge Guide to Homer

The Cambridge Guide to Homer PDF Author: Corinne Ondine Pache
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108663621
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 974

Get Book

Book Description
From its ancient incarnation as a song to recent translations in modern languages, Homeric epic remains an abiding source of inspiration for both scholars and artists that transcends temporal and linguistic boundaries. The Cambridge Guide to Homer examines the influence and meaning of Homeric poetry from its earliest form as ancient Greek song to its current status in world literature, presenting the information in a synthetic manner that allows the reader to gain an understanding of the different strands of Homeric studies. The volume is structured around three main themes: Homeric Song and Text; the Homeric World, and Homer in the World. Each section starts with a series of 'macropedia' essays arranged thematically that are accompanied by shorter complementary 'micropedia' articles. The Cambridge Guide to Homer thus traces the many routes taken by Homeric epic in the ancient world and its continuing relevance in different periods and cultures.

Speech in Ancient Greek Literature

Speech in Ancient Greek Literature PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004498818
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 762

Get Book

Book Description
The fifth volume of the Studies in Ancient Greek Narrative deals with speech: it discusses the types, modes and functions of speech in narrative, the boundaries between speech and narrative context, and the absence of speech (silence).

Greek Heroes in and Out of Hades

Greek Heroes in and Out of Hades PDF Author: Stamatia Dova
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739144979
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 243

Get Book

Book Description
Greek Heroes in and out of Hades is a study on heroism and mortality from Homer to Plato. Through systematic readings of a wide range of ancient Greek texts, Stamatia Dova offers innovative hermeneutic approaches to heroic character and a comprehensive overview of the theme of descent to the underworld in the Iliad and the Odyssey, Bacchylides 5, Plato's Symposium, and Euripides' Alcestis.

Listening to Homer

Listening to Homer PDF Author: Ruth Scodel
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472033743
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Get Book

Book Description
DIVA discussion of how ancient Greek bards ensured that their poetry would reach audiences of various backgrounds /div

Epic Facework

Epic Facework PDF Author: Ruth Scodel
Publisher: Classical Press of Wales
ISBN: 1910589438
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 186

Get Book

Book Description
Homer's characters are often very far from an unreflecting struggle for status at others' expense. Rather than being a 'zero-sum game', their negotiations can be of an impressive delicacy, designed to protect the 'face' of the other. Gifts and visible deference are important measures of honour, but characters also care about what others really feel. This sensitive study reveals that at the beginnings of (surviving) Greek literature Homer's audience is expected to appreciate psychology and self-control of a very high order. Literary analysts, historians, anthropologists and indeed archaeologists will have much to learn here about the general level of sophistication of the historic and prehistoric societies which generated such deeply civilized poetry.

Aspects of the Speech in the Later Greek Epic (Classic Reprint)

Aspects of the Speech in the Later Greek Epic (Classic Reprint) PDF Author: George Wicker Elderkin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781332565481
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 68

Get Book

Book Description
Excerpt from Aspects of the Speech in the Later Greek Epic The life and vigor of the poems of Homer has among its constituents the important element of speech. The extent of its employment has been measured and the statistics show that just one-half of Homer is composed of the directly recorded utterances of his characters. The speech, therefore, with its varied aspects, promises to be of significance as a chapter of comparative study in Greek epic poetry. Its subsequent fate may fairly be expected to throw no little light upon the relations of the later epic poets to the source of their inspiration, upon the extent of their adherence to and departure from Homeric standards. Particularly is this so in the case of Quintus of Smyrna, for the reader readily recognizes that the immediate purpose of the Posthomerica is to fill in the gap between the poems of Homer, although the poem of Quintus looks backward to the Iliad rather than forward to the Odyssey. The feeling that Quintus regarded himself as more than a mere imitator of Homer and aspired to some independence as an epic poet is perfectly compatible in view of his obvious purpose, with an exacting comparison of the Iliad and the Posthomerica. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Aspects of the Speech in the Later Greek Epic

Aspects of the Speech in the Later Greek Epic PDF Author: George Wicker Elderkin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Epic poetry, Greek
Languages : en
Pages : 66

Get Book

Book Description