The Epic Gaze: Vision, Gender and Narrative in Ancient Epic

ISBN-13: 9781107016118 / Angielski / Twarda / 2013 / 424 str.

Helen Lovatt

Opis

The epic genre has at its heart fascination and horror at 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 and ambitious study investigates the theme of vision in Greek and Latin epic from Homer to Nonnus, bringing the edges of epic into dialogue with the most celebrated moments (the visual confrontation of Hector and Achilles, the failure of Turnus' gaze), revealing epic as both massive assertion of authority and fractured representation. It demonstrates the complexity of epic constructions of gender: from Apollonius' Medea toppling Talos with only her eyes to Parthenopaeus as object of desire. On display are the vertical gaze of the gods, mortal responses, prophets as penetrative viewers and rape victims, ecphrasis as objectification, women on the walls gazing sidelong, heroic bodies fragmented and fetishized.

Recenzje

'… a detailed, thoughtful examination of vision in classical epic … Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.' S. E. Goins, Choice

Spis treści

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.