- 638 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
The Epic World
About this book
Reconceptualizing the epic genre and opening it up to a world of storytelling, The Epic World makes a timely and bold intervention toward understanding the human propensity to aestheticize and normalize mass deployments of power and violence. The collection broadly considers three kinds of epic literature: conventional celebratory tales of conquest that glorify heroism, especially male heroism; anti-epics or stories of conquest from the perspectives of the dispossessed, the oppressed, the despised, and the murdered; and heroic stories utilized for imperialist or nationalist purposes.
The Epic World illustrates global patterns of epic storytelling, such as the durability of stories tied to religious traditions and/or to peoples who have largely "stayed put"; the tendency to reimagine and retell stories in new ways over centuries; and the imbrication of epic storytelling and forms of colonialism and imperialism, especially those perpetuated and glorified by Euro-Americans over the past 500 years, resulting in unspeakable and immeasurable harms to humans, other living beings, and the planet Earth.
The Epic World is a go-to volume for anyone interested in epic literature in a global framework. Engaging with powerful stories and ways of knowing beyond those of the predominantly white Global North, this field-shifting volume exposes the false premises of "Western civilization" and "Classics," and brings new questions and perspectives to epic studies.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Series Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Table of Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgment
- Note on Transliteration
- Introduction
- Part I: Ways of Reading Epics
- Part II: A Sample of Ancient Iterations (The Beginnings – CIRCA 1000 CE)
- Part III: Recastings and Innovations (CIRCA 1000 – 1850 CE)
- Part IV: New Forms and Foundational Stories (CIRCA 1850 – Present)
- Index
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