Epic World

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.

‘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 2024

• List of Figures and TablesList of ContributorsAcknowledgmentsNote on TransliterationIntroductionPart I. Ways of Reading Epics1. A Critical Race Studies Approach: Race and Racecraft in Apollonius’s ArgonauticaJackie Murray2. A Postcolonial Studies Approach: From Fanon’s Revolutionary Literature to Glissant’s RelationSneharika Roy3. An Ecocritical Approach: Early Modern English Epic PossibilitiesChris Barrett4. An Affect Studies Approach: Reading Non-Normative Masculinities in Homer’s IliadMelissa Mueller5. A Network Approach: Tracking Female Power in Seven Epic NarrativesPádraig MacCarron, Máirín MacCarron, Sílvio Dahmen, Joseph Yose, and Ralph KennaPart II. A Sample of Ancient Iterations (The Beginnings-1000 CE)6. The Epic Bible: Authority and Identity in the Face of AdversityShawna Dolansky and Sarah Cook7. Gilgamesh and Tiamat Abroad: (Mis-)Reading Mesopotamian EpicKaren Sonik8. (Re)Inventing an Epic: Reading the Tamil Cilappatikāram across TimeMorgan J Curtis9. Sri Lanka’s Mahāvaṃsa, The Great ChronicleKristin Scheible10. The ‘Epic of the Anglo-Saxons’: The Many Cultural Streams of BeowulfMaría José Gómez Calderón11. Ecological Colonialism in Vergil’s AeneidLaura ZientekPart III. "Middle" Period Re-castings and Innovations (1000-1850 CE)12. Sunjata Fasa and the Oral Epic Tradition of MaliKassim Kone13. Kingship and Power in Sirat Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan and the Prophetic KönigsnovelleHelen Blatherwick14. A Battle of Equals: Rustam and Isfandiar in Illustrated Manuscripts of the ShāhnāmaBehrang Nabavi Nejad15. From Oghuz Khan to Exodus: Lineage, Heroism, and Migration in Oghuz Turk TraditionAli Aydin Karamustafa16. The "Hindu" Epics? Telling the Ramayana and the Mahabharata in Premodern South AsiaSohini Sarah Pillai17. Trickster as Epic Narrator in Malaysia’s Hikayat Hang TuahSylvia Tiwon18. Connecting with Ancestors: "Imported" and Indigenous Epics in Southeast AsiaAdrian Vickers19. Epic Contestations: What Makes an Epic in Multi-ethnic China?Mark Bender20. Whose Epic is it, Anyway? Gesar and the Myth of National EpicNatasha Mikles21. Ode to Mongolian Heroism: The Oirat Epic JangarChao Gejin22. Placation, Memorial, and History in Japan’s The Tale of the Heike and BeyondElizabeth Oyler23. Guaman Poma’s Epic Letter: A Complex Salvo against Spanish Colonialism in the AndesScotti M. Norman24. Human Owls and Political Sorcery in the Anales de CuauhtitlanMartín Vega Olmedo25. An "Epic of Sorts": Gaspar de Villagrá and His Impossible Epic of the New MexicoManuel M. Martín-Rodríguez26. Gender Performance and Gendered Warriors in the Albanian EpicAnna Di Lellio and Arbnora Dushi27. Slavic Oral-Traditional Epic in the Ottoman EcumeneRobert Romanchuk28. Empire and Resistance in South Slavic and Romanian Oral Epic PoetryMargaret BeissingerPart IV. New Forms and Foundational Stories (1850-present)29. "It Shall be Ruled by Swallows": The Epic of the Zulu King ShakaPhiwokuhle Mnyandu30. Lithoko: Continuity, Change, and the Future of South Sotho Praise PoetryDavid M. M. Riep31. "Man is the Center": Centripetal Power in the Malagasy Epic Tale of IboniaHallie Wells and Vony Ranalarimanana32. In Service of Authenticity: Epic in Central Africa under ColonialismJonathon Repinecz33. Female Leadership and Nation Building: The West African Epics Yennenga and SarraouniaMariam Konaté34. "The Return of Rome": Empire, Epic, and Twentieth-Century Italian Imperialism in AfricaSamuel Agbamu35. Empire and Resistance in Kazakh Oral Epic: The Case of Sătbek BatyrGabriel McGuire36. Tolstoy’s War and Peace: National Epic on Page, Stage, and ScreenJulie A. Buckler37. Ecocriticism and Indigenous Anti-epics of ChinaRobin Visser38. Anti-epic as National Epic: Uses and Misuses of Epic in Argentina’s Martín FierroNicolás Suárez39. To Keep the Sky from Falling: The Epic of Indigenous Environmentalism in BrazilTracy Devine Guzmán40. An Epic Struggle in Mesoamerican Indigenous Literatures: Recovering Written Forms of ExpressionArturo Arias41. African/American (Heroic) Epic: Lee’s Do the Right Thing as Critique, Caution, ComedyGregory E. Rutledge42. Epic Sound and Whiteness in Richard Wagner’s Ring CycleAlexander RotheIndex