Epic ( dr. Greek ἐποποιΐα , from ἔπος “word, narration” + ποιέω “I create”) - an extensive narrative in poems or prose about outstanding national historical events. [one]
In a figurative sense: a complex, long history of something, including a series of major events.
Content
Origin
The epic was preceded by the conversion of old songs of a semi- lyrical , semi- narrative nature, caused by the combat feats of the clan , tribe and dedicated to the heroes around whom they were grouped. These songs took shape in large poetic units - epics - sealed by the integrity of personal design and construction, but only nominally timed to one or another author. So Homer's poems “ Iliad ” and “ Odyssey ”, as well as French “chansons de geste” (? Translation / spelling) arose. [2]
Development and varieties of the epic
The poets of Aristotle and Horace erected the forms of the epic into classical norms, having closed the study for a long time into a small circle of samples ( Homer , Virgil ). With the opening of the so-called folk song by the romantics and the school of the Grimm brothers , as well as with the introduction of new material by ethnographers and folklorists, the beginning of the study of the epic on a broader historical and literary basis. [2] .
In historical and literary science since the 19th century, the term epic is often used in an expanded sense, encompassing any major work that has signs of an epic structure. In this sense, “epic novels ” are distinguished, where the main characters are described against the backdrop of major events of historical significance: “ War and Peace ” by L. N. Tolstoy, “Sevastopol Strada” and “Transfiguration of Russia” by S.N. Sergeyev-Tsensky, “The Life of Klim Samgin ” by A. M. Gorky, “The Quiet Don ” by M. A. Sholokhov, “ Walking through the agony ” of A. N. Tolstoy, “ The Last of the Udege ” by A. A. Fadeev . In the " heroic - Romanian epics" the main characters actively and purposefully participate in important historical events, during which their personality is formed: " Peter I " by A. N. Tolstoy. [one]
Separately, “moral descriptions” of prosaic orientation are singled out, which extensively describe the comic state of the national society: “ Gargantua and Pantagruel ” by Francois Rabelais, “ Dead Souls ” by N.V. Gogol, “ Penguin Island ” by Anatole France . [one]
See also
- epic
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 Epic - an article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia .
- ↑ 1 2 Epic // Great Soviet Encyclopedia (first edition), Vol. 64 (1933), S. 552.