Book contents
- Byron in Context
- Byron in Context
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Chronology
- Abbreviations and Note on the Text
- Introduction
- Part I Life and Works
- Part II Political, Social and Intellectual Transformations
- Part III Literary Cultures
- Chapter 17 Classicism and Neoclassicism
- Chapter 18 Epic (and Historiography)
- Chapter 19 Romance
- Chapter 20 Byron’s Lyric Practice
- Chapter 21 Satire
- Chapter 22 The Satanic School
- Chapter 23 The Lake Poets
- Chapter 24 Byron’s Accidental Muse
- Chapter 25 “Benign Ceruleans of the Second Sex!”
- Chapter 26 The Pisan Circle and the Cockney School
- Chapter 27 Drama and Theater
- Chapter 28 Autobiography
- Chapter 29 “Literatoor” and Literary Theory
- Chapter 30 Periodical Culture, the Literary Review and the Mass Media
- Part IV Reception and Afterlives
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 18 - Epic (and Historiography)
from Part III - Literary Cultures
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 October 2019
- Byron in Context
- Byron in Context
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Chronology
- Abbreviations and Note on the Text
- Introduction
- Part I Life and Works
- Part II Political, Social and Intellectual Transformations
- Part III Literary Cultures
- Chapter 17 Classicism and Neoclassicism
- Chapter 18 Epic (and Historiography)
- Chapter 19 Romance
- Chapter 20 Byron’s Lyric Practice
- Chapter 21 Satire
- Chapter 22 The Satanic School
- Chapter 23 The Lake Poets
- Chapter 24 Byron’s Accidental Muse
- Chapter 25 “Benign Ceruleans of the Second Sex!”
- Chapter 26 The Pisan Circle and the Cockney School
- Chapter 27 Drama and Theater
- Chapter 28 Autobiography
- Chapter 29 “Literatoor” and Literary Theory
- Chapter 30 Periodical Culture, the Literary Review and the Mass Media
- Part IV Reception and Afterlives
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
Ever since its inception, Western epic has been concerned with the narration of the past, be it human, cosmic or mythic. From Homer’s siege of Troy and Virgil’s foundation of Rome, down to Milton’s “first disobedience,” epic discourse has retraced key episodes in the historical memory of the West, generally shaping them around figures who have been cast into heroic relief. Recalling that “Mnemosyne, the rememberer, was the Muse of the epic art among the Greeks,” Walter Benjamin wondered “whether historiography does not constitute the common ground of all forms of the epic,” over and above the formal qualities traditionally associated with the genre – considerable length, elevated diction, supernatural machinery, rhetorical devices such as series and similes, set pieces like the invocation to the Muse and prophetic visions.
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- Byron in Context , pp. 151 - 158Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019