Browsing by Subject "Epic"
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Item Carried meaning in the Mahābhārata(2015-12) Rudmann, Daniel Adam; Selby, Martha Ann; Brereton, Joel P., 1948-; Freiberger, Oliver; Talbot, Cynthia; Hiltebeitel, AlfThe Mahābhārata describes itself as both a comprehensive and exhaustive text, incorporating a range of genres while presenting diverse perspectives through a matrix of interacting narratives. Its main story and subtales are the subject of productive contemporary studies that underscore the significance of the Sanskrit epic, though this scholarship is also famously criticized for overlooking literary inquiry. The following dissertation enacts a close reading of four subtales, Nala’s Tale, Rāma’s Tale, Sāvitrī’s Tale, and The Yakṣa’s Questions, in context with the larger work to uncover the implications of a literary study of the Mahābhārata. By conducting translations of passages from the epic, this dissertation builds sites of alliance among frame and subtale, literary and translation theory, critical analysis and contemporary scholarship, as well as the Mahābhārata and other works of literature in order to consider the ways in which meaning is generated throughout the text. Language, constituent parts, and operative principles are found to reverberate in the epic, eschewing didacticism and stasis for literary vitality. Themes of loss, love, disguise, and discovery veer throughout the subtales as sideshadows that at once collaborate and contradict to continuously redefine one another. The Mahābhārata’s self-conscious and reiterative reinterpretation of its own constructs presents critical insights on translation as dialogical correspondence, occurring within utterances as well as between languages. The act of translation, utilized by the poem itself to develop and proliferate significance, reveals difference and bears legibility within the epic.Item Cursing Kṛṣṇa : gender, theodicy, and time in the Mahābhārata(2016-05) Wilson, Jeff Scott; Brereton, Joel P., 1948-; Freiberger, OliverIn this paper, I will discuss the doctrines of theodicy and time in the Mahābhārata, with particular attention to the concept of gender in the epic milieu. I argue that the parallel narratives of Draupadī and Gāndhārī play a central role in establishing what Emily T. Hudson refers to as “the aesthetics of suffering.” Draupadī and Gāndhārī’s respective arguments against Kṛṣṇa, especially, raise a number of crucial theodicean questions that ultimately contribute to the overall argument of the text in regards to the necessity of detachment (vairāgya) and the ravages of Time (kāla). As such, this paper endeavors to provide a reading of the text that contextualizes Draupadī and Gāndhārī’s theodicean arguments in terms of Kṛṣṇa’s identification with the epic’s concept of Time, the interplay of gender and ethics that inform these arguments, and finally, a possible answer to these arguments that incorporates the above insights. In the end, I hope to provide a fitting testament to both the moral and theological depth of the epic as a whole.Item Iliadic and Odyssean heroics : Apollonius' Argonautica and the epic tradition(2014-12) Richards, Rebecca Anne; Beck, DeborahThis report examines heroism in Apollonius’ Argonautica and argues that a different heroic model predominates in each of the first three books. Unlike Homer’s epics where Achilles with his superhuman might and Odysseus with his unparalleled cunning serve as the unifying forces for their respective poems, there is no single guiding influence in the Argonautica. Rather, each book establishes its own heroic type, distinct from the others. In Book 1, Heracles is the central figure, demonstrating his heroic worth through feats of strength and martial excellence. In Book 2, Polydeuces, the helmsmen, and—what I have called—the “Odyssean” Heracles use their mētis to guide and safeguard the expedition. And in Book 3, Jason takes center stage, a human character with human limitations tasked with an epic, impossible mission. This movement from Book 1 (Heracles and biē) to Book 2 (Polydeuces/helmsmen and mētis) to Book 3 (Jason and human realism) reflects the epic tradition: the Iliad (Achilles and biē) to the Odyssey (Odysseus and mētis) to the Argonautica (Apollonius’ epic and the Hellenistic age). Thus, the Argonautica is an epic about epic and its evolving classification of what it entails to be a hero. The final stage in this grand metaphor comes in Book 3 which mirrors the literary environment in Apollonius’ own day and age, a time invested in realism where epic had been deemed obsolete. Jason, as the representative of that Hellenistic world, is unable to successively use Iliadic or Odyssean heroics because he is as human and ordinary as Apollonius’ audience. Jason, like his readers, cannot connect to the archaic past. Medea, however, changes this when she saves Jason’s life by effectively rewriting him to become a superhuman, epic hero. She is a metaphor for Apollonius himself, a poet who wrote an epic in an unepic world. The final message of Book 3, therefore, is an affirmation not of the death of epic but its survival in the Hellenistic age.Item Lucretius, Pietas, and the Foedera Naturae(2013-05) Takakjy, Laura Chason; Dean-Jones, LesleyThe presentation of pietas in Lucretius has often been overlooked since he dismisses all religious practice, but when we consider the poem’s overall theme of growth and decay, a definition for pietas emerges. For humans, pietas is the commitment to maintaining the foedera naturae, “nature’s treaties.” Humans display pietas by procreating and thereby promoting their own atomic movements into the future. In the “Hymn to Venus,” Lucretius uses animals as role models for this aspect of human behavior because they automatically reproduce come spring. In the “Attack on Love,” Lucretius criticizes romantic love because it fails to promote the foedera naturae of the family. Lucretius departs from Epicurus by expressing a concern for the family’s endurance into the future, or for however long natura will allow. It becomes clear that Lucretius sees humans as bound to their communities since they must live together to perpetuate the foedera naturae of the family.Item Masculinity in Cantar de Mio Cid : the roles of metonymy and hierarchy(2014-05) Šetek, Nika; Harney, Michael, 1948-; Reed, CoryThe unknown author of the medieval epic poem Cantar de Mio Cid uses the pre-existing hierarchy of gender to address issues of honor and class. The text associates moral superiority with the medieval understanding of the masculine as superior to the feminine. This effect is largely achieved through the use of metonymic expressions, which serve to construct the Cid as the ideal model of masculinity in the poem. These metonymies include the Cid's beard, swords and daughters, all of which serve to tie masculinity with honor. On the other hand, the unsympathetic characters, such as the Cid's son-in-laws, the count Ordóñez and the moneylenders are not only portrayed as lying cowards, but they also display an inability to properly handle the metonymic symbols of masculinity. For example, the Infantes are poor warriors and they assault the Cid’s daughters instead of protecting them, while the count allows for his beard to be plucked. What we find is that the text collapses hierarchies of class and religion into the hierarchy of gender. While the women in the poem, whose occupation of feminine roles appears natural, are presented as positive characters, a male character’s association with the feminine signals moral inferiority. The hierarchy of gender, which traditionally subordinates the feminine to the masculine, becomes applied to the Cid's adversaries, who are largely presented as effeminate men and who cannot measure up to the warrior ideal of masculinity embodied by the Cid. The association of the Cid's enemies with the feminine allows the poet to attack both the type of higher nobility that identifies honor as something one is born into instead of something one earns, and the presumably Jewish characters who engage in money lending. In contrast, the Cid's honor is one achieved through deeds, which justifies his upward social mobility. When the Cid finally climbs higher than his enemies, the gender association naturalizes this change in fortune: the "truly" masculine assumes its expected position over the effeminized.