This student guidebook offers a clear introduction to an often complex and unwieldy area of literary studies. Tracing epic from its ancient and classical roots through postmodern and contemporary examples this volume discusses:
- a wide range of writers including Homer, Vergil, Ovid, Dante, Chaucer, Milton, Cervantes, Keats, Byron, Eliot, Walcott and Tolkien
- texts from poems, novels, children’s literature, tv, theatre and film
- themes and motifs such as romance, tragedy, religion, journeys and the supernatural.
Offering new directions for the future and addressing the place of epic in both English-language texts and World Literature, this handy book takes you on a fascinating guided tour through the epic.
Chapter One: Epic Literary History Chapter Two: Ancient and Classical Epic Chapter Three: From The Heroic towards Romance and Allegory Chapter Four: The Renaissance and the Early Novel Chapter Five: Epic in the Age of the Individual
Biography
Paul Innes is a senior lecturer in adult and continuing education at the University of Glasgow. He has published widely on Shakespeare, early modern literature and literary theory.
