The Epic World
1st Edition
Published on 30. January 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
660 pages
978-1-032-42499-6 (ISBN)
Description
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.
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.
Reviews / Votes
'Epic studies, as this book impressively demonstrates, is robust. In the forty-two chapters that cover the distant past to the present, the contributors both demonstrate their research and also encourage further avenues of inquiry. . . . The book showcases the high quality of research in world-spanning accounts, and the scholars demonstrate not only that, but also how, these oral and later written stories continue to construct meaningful worldviews.' - Frank England, Reading Religion, April 2024More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Postgraduate and Undergraduate Advanced
Illustrations
27 s/w Abbildungen, 22 s/w Photographien bzw. Rasterbilder, 5 s/w Zeichnungen
5 Line drawings, black and white; 22 Halftones, black and white; 27 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 244 mm
Width: 170 mm
Thickness: 35 mm
Weight
1124 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-032-42499-6 (9781032424996)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Pamela Lothspeich is Professor of South Asian Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research centers on the Indian epics in modern literature, theatre, and film.
Content
List of Figures and Tables
List of Contributors
Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration
Introduction
Part I. Ways of Reading Epics
1. A Critical Race Studies Approach: Race and Racecraft in Apollonius's Argonautica
Jackie Murray
2. A Postcolonial Studies Approach: From Fanon's Revolutionary Literature to Glissant's Relation
Sneharika Roy
3. An Ecocritical Approach: Early Modern English Epic Possibilities
Chris Barrett
4. An Affect Studies Approach: Reading Non-Normative Masculinities in Homer's Iliad
Melissa Mueller
5. A Network Approach: Tracking Female Power in Seven Epic Narratives
Padraig MacCarron, Mairin MacCarron, Silvio Dahmen, Joseph Yose, and Ralph Kenna
Part II. A Sample of Ancient Iterations (The Beginnings-1000 CE)
6. The Epic Bible: Authority and Identity in the Face of Adversity
Shawna Dolansky and Sarah Cook
7. Gilgamesh and Tiamat Abroad: (Mis-)Reading Mesopotamian Epic
Karen Sonik
8. (Re)Inventing an Epic: Reading the Tamil Cilappatikaram across Time
Morgan J Curtis
9. Sri Lanka's Mahava?sa, The Great Chronicle
Kristin Scheible
10. The 'Epic of the Anglo-Saxons': The Many Cultural Streams of Beowulf
Maria Jose Gomez Calderon
11. Ecological Colonialism in Vergil's Aeneid
Laura Zientek
Part III. "Middle" Period Re-castings and Innovations (1000-1850 CE)
12. Sunjata Fasa and the Oral Epic Tradition of Mali
Kassim Kone
13. Kingship and Power in Sirat Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan and the Prophetic Koenigsnovelle
Helen Blatherwick
14. A Battle of Equals: Rustam and Isfandiar in Illustrated Manuscripts of the Shahnama
Behrang Nabavi Nejad
15. From Oghuz Khan to Exodus: Lineage, Heroism, and Migration in Oghuz Turk Tradition
Ali Aydin Karamustafa
16. The "Hindu" Epics? Telling the Ramayana and the Mahabharata in Premodern South Asia
Sohini Sarah Pillai
17. Trickster as Epic Narrator in Malaysia's Hikayat Hang Tuah
Sylvia Tiwon
18. Connecting with Ancestors: "Imported" and Indigenous Epics in Southeast Asia
Adrian Vickers
19. Epic Contestations: What Makes an Epic in Multi-ethnic China?
Mark Bender
20. Whose Epic is it, Anyway? Gesar and the Myth of National Epic
Natasha Mikles
21. Ode to Mongolian Heroism: The Oirat Epic Jangar
Chao Gejin
22. Placation, Memorial, and History in Japan's The Tale of the Heike and Beyond
Elizabeth Oyler
23. Guaman Poma's Epic Letter: A Complex Salvo against Spanish Colonialism in the Andes
Scotti M. Norman
24. Human Owls and Political Sorcery in the Anales de Cuauhtitlan
Martin Vega Olmedo
25. An "Epic of Sorts": Gaspar de Villagra and His Impossible Epic of the New Mexico
Manuel M. Martin-Rodriguez
26. Gender Performance and Gendered Warriors in the Albanian Epic
Anna Di Lellio and Arbnora Dushi
27. Slavic Oral-Traditional Epic in the Ottoman Ecumene
Robert Romanchuk
28. Empire and Resistance in South Slavic and Romanian Oral Epic Poetry
Margaret Beissinger
Part IV. New Forms and Foundational Stories (1850-present)
29. "It Shall be Ruled by Swallows": The Epic of the Zulu King Shaka
Phiwokuhle Mnyandu
30. Lithoko: Continuity, Change, and the Future of South Sotho Praise Poetry
David M. M. Riep
31. "Man is the Center": Centripetal Power in the Malagasy Epic Tale of Ibonia
Hallie Wells and Vony Ranalarimanana
32. In Service of Authenticity: Epic in Central Africa under Colonialism
Jonathon Repinecz
33. Female Leadership and Nation Building: The West African Epics Yennenga and Sarraounia
Mariam Konate
34. "The Return of Rome": Empire, Epic, and Twentieth-Century Italian Imperialism in Africa
Samuel Agbamu
35. Empire and Resistance in Kazakh Oral Epic: The Case of Satbek Batyr
Gabriel McGuire
36. Tolstoy's War and Peace: National Epic on Page, Stage, and Screen
Julie A. Buckler
37. Ecocriticism and Indigenous Anti-epics of China
Robin Visser
38. Anti-epic as National Epic: Uses and Misuses of Epic in Argentina's Martin Fierro
Nicolas Suarez
39. To Keep the Sky from Falling: The Epic of Indigenous Environmentalism in Brazil
Tracy Devine Guzman
40. An Epic Struggle in Mesoamerican Indigenous Literatures: Recovering Written Forms of Expression
Arturo Arias
41. African/American (Heroic) Epic: Lee's Do the Right Thing as Critique, Caution, Comedy
Gregory E. Rutledge
42. Epic Sound and Whiteness in Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle
Alexander Rothe
Index
List of Contributors
Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration
Introduction
Part I. Ways of Reading Epics
1. A Critical Race Studies Approach: Race and Racecraft in Apollonius's Argonautica
Jackie Murray
2. A Postcolonial Studies Approach: From Fanon's Revolutionary Literature to Glissant's Relation
Sneharika Roy
3. An Ecocritical Approach: Early Modern English Epic Possibilities
Chris Barrett
4. An Affect Studies Approach: Reading Non-Normative Masculinities in Homer's Iliad
Melissa Mueller
5. A Network Approach: Tracking Female Power in Seven Epic Narratives
Padraig MacCarron, Mairin MacCarron, Silvio Dahmen, Joseph Yose, and Ralph Kenna
Part II. A Sample of Ancient Iterations (The Beginnings-1000 CE)
6. The Epic Bible: Authority and Identity in the Face of Adversity
Shawna Dolansky and Sarah Cook
7. Gilgamesh and Tiamat Abroad: (Mis-)Reading Mesopotamian Epic
Karen Sonik
8. (Re)Inventing an Epic: Reading the Tamil Cilappatikaram across Time
Morgan J Curtis
9. Sri Lanka's Mahava?sa, The Great Chronicle
Kristin Scheible
10. The 'Epic of the Anglo-Saxons': The Many Cultural Streams of Beowulf
Maria Jose Gomez Calderon
11. Ecological Colonialism in Vergil's Aeneid
Laura Zientek
Part III. "Middle" Period Re-castings and Innovations (1000-1850 CE)
12. Sunjata Fasa and the Oral Epic Tradition of Mali
Kassim Kone
13. Kingship and Power in Sirat Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan and the Prophetic Koenigsnovelle
Helen Blatherwick
14. A Battle of Equals: Rustam and Isfandiar in Illustrated Manuscripts of the Shahnama
Behrang Nabavi Nejad
15. From Oghuz Khan to Exodus: Lineage, Heroism, and Migration in Oghuz Turk Tradition
Ali Aydin Karamustafa
16. The "Hindu" Epics? Telling the Ramayana and the Mahabharata in Premodern South Asia
Sohini Sarah Pillai
17. Trickster as Epic Narrator in Malaysia's Hikayat Hang Tuah
Sylvia Tiwon
18. Connecting with Ancestors: "Imported" and Indigenous Epics in Southeast Asia
Adrian Vickers
19. Epic Contestations: What Makes an Epic in Multi-ethnic China?
Mark Bender
20. Whose Epic is it, Anyway? Gesar and the Myth of National Epic
Natasha Mikles
21. Ode to Mongolian Heroism: The Oirat Epic Jangar
Chao Gejin
22. Placation, Memorial, and History in Japan's The Tale of the Heike and Beyond
Elizabeth Oyler
23. Guaman Poma's Epic Letter: A Complex Salvo against Spanish Colonialism in the Andes
Scotti M. Norman
24. Human Owls and Political Sorcery in the Anales de Cuauhtitlan
Martin Vega Olmedo
25. An "Epic of Sorts": Gaspar de Villagra and His Impossible Epic of the New Mexico
Manuel M. Martin-Rodriguez
26. Gender Performance and Gendered Warriors in the Albanian Epic
Anna Di Lellio and Arbnora Dushi
27. Slavic Oral-Traditional Epic in the Ottoman Ecumene
Robert Romanchuk
28. Empire and Resistance in South Slavic and Romanian Oral Epic Poetry
Margaret Beissinger
Part IV. New Forms and Foundational Stories (1850-present)
29. "It Shall be Ruled by Swallows": The Epic of the Zulu King Shaka
Phiwokuhle Mnyandu
30. Lithoko: Continuity, Change, and the Future of South Sotho Praise Poetry
David M. M. Riep
31. "Man is the Center": Centripetal Power in the Malagasy Epic Tale of Ibonia
Hallie Wells and Vony Ranalarimanana
32. In Service of Authenticity: Epic in Central Africa under Colonialism
Jonathon Repinecz
33. Female Leadership and Nation Building: The West African Epics Yennenga and Sarraounia
Mariam Konate
34. "The Return of Rome": Empire, Epic, and Twentieth-Century Italian Imperialism in Africa
Samuel Agbamu
35. Empire and Resistance in Kazakh Oral Epic: The Case of Satbek Batyr
Gabriel McGuire
36. Tolstoy's War and Peace: National Epic on Page, Stage, and Screen
Julie A. Buckler
37. Ecocriticism and Indigenous Anti-epics of China
Robin Visser
38. Anti-epic as National Epic: Uses and Misuses of Epic in Argentina's Martin Fierro
Nicolas Suarez
39. To Keep the Sky from Falling: The Epic of Indigenous Environmentalism in Brazil
Tracy Devine Guzman
40. An Epic Struggle in Mesoamerican Indigenous Literatures: Recovering Written Forms of Expression
Arturo Arias
41. African/American (Heroic) Epic: Lee's Do the Right Thing as Critique, Caution, Comedy
Gregory E. Rutledge
42. Epic Sound and Whiteness in Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle
Alexander Rothe
Index