The Epic Gaze

Erscheinungsjahr 2013
ISBN: 978-1-107-01611-8
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 424 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 764 g

The epic genre has at its heart a fascination with the horror of viewing death. Epic heroes have active visual power, yet become objects, turned into monuments, watched by two main audiences: the gods above and the women on the sidelines. This stimulating, ambitious study investigates the theme of vision in Greek and Latin epic from Homer to Nonnus, bringing the edges of epic into dialogue with celebrated moments (the visual confrontation of Hector and Achilles, the failure of Turnus' gaze), revealing epic as massive assertion of authority and fractured representation. Helen Lovatt demonstrates the complexity of epic constructions of gender: from Apollonius' Medea toppling Talos with her eyes to Parthenopaeus as object of desire. She discusses mortals appropriating the divine gaze, prophets as both penetrative viewers and rape victims, explores the divine authority of epic ecphrasis, and exposes the way that heroic bodies are fragmented and fetishised.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lovatt, Helen

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft: Lyrik und Dichter

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction; 2. The divine gaze; 3. The mortal gaze; 4. The prophetic gaze; 5. Ecphrasis and the Other; 6. The female gaze; 7. Heroic bodies on display; 8. The assaultive gaze; 9. Fixing it for good. Medusa and monumentality.

Über Autor(innen)

Lovatt, Helen
Helen Lovatt is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Nottingham and her teaching includes epic and its reception. She is the author of Statius and Epic Games (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and co-editor, with Caroline Vout, of Epic Visions (Cambridge University Press, 2013).