Epic poetry
The epic is a broadly defined genre of poetry, which retells in a continuous narrative the life and works of a heroic or mythological person or group of persons. In the West, the Iliad, Odyssey and Nibelungenlied; and in the East, the Mahabharata, Ramayana, and the Shahnama are often cited as examples of the epic genre.
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2 Early epics 3 Oral transmission of epics 4 Epics in literate societies 5 Epic non-poetry 6 Notable epic poems 7 See also 8 External links 9 References |
One important factor that distinguishes epics from other forms of narrative poetry is scale: epic poems tend to be too long to be read or performed in a single sitting. A second distinguishing factor is stylistic: epic poems are written in what might be termed high style, avoiding popular metres and verse patterns. For example, an epic written in English would not use the ballad form.
Thirdly, epic poems always deal with persons and events that are considered to be historically real by the poet and their audience. Epics are, essentially, the tale of the tribe. In oral cultures, the learning and performance of epic poems frequently formed an integral part of the education of the poet and, by extension, the audience. This assumed historicity is important for distinguishing epic from other long narrative forms such as allegory.
The first recorded epic is the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. The longest epic (and, in general, work of literature) of all time is the Tibetan Epic of King Gesar, which has been collected as a work composed of roughly 120 volumes, with more than 1 million verses, totalling over 20 million words, making it 25 times the size of the ancient Greek epic, the Illiad. The Mahabharata. whose 100,000 verses make it four times the size of the Bible and seven times the combined size of the Iliad and the Odyssey, is considered the second-largest literary work.
The first epics are associated strongly with preliterate societies and oral poetic traditions. In these traditions, poetry is transmitted to the audience and from performer to performer by purely oral means. Studies of living oral epic traditions in the Balkans by Milman Parry and Albert Lord demonstrated the paratactic model used for composing these poems. What they demonstrated was that oral epics tend to be constructed in short episodes, each of equal status, interest and importance. This facilitates memorisation, as the poet is recalling each episode and using them to recreate the entire epic as they perform it.
Parry and Lord also showed that the most likely source for written texts of the epics of Homer was dictation from an oral performance.
Literate societies have often copied the epic format, and the earliest known European example is Virgil's Aeneid, which follows both the style and subject matter of Homer. Another obvious example is Tulsidas' Ramacharitamanas, following the style and subject matter of Valmiki's Ramayana.
By extension, the word "epic" is used in reference to any fictional work that follows the broad stylistic and thematic conventions of epic poetry, namely high language, historical or pseudo-historical settings, and hero-worship. Examples of non-poetic epics are Beau Geste, The Great Indian Novel and Star Wars''.
Epic versus narrative
Early epics
Oral transmission of epics
Epics in literate societies
Epic non-poetry
Notable epic poems
See also
External links
References