Abstract
This essay highlights some aspects of the tragic conception of the Odyssey in assertion of its generic identity, focusing on the three songs of the bard Demodocus recounted in Book 8 of the epic and using mise en abyme as the primary exegetical tool. Mise en abyme, a narratological term denoting a certain part of a literary work of art that represents the work as a whole, functions in Demodocus' first song to mark the Odyssey as an epic in dialogue with the Iliad. The second song functions as a mise en abyme of both the content of the Odyssey and its poetic form. The last of the bard's songs enhances the perception of mise en abyme, viewing the Odyssey as an act of communication between poet and audience where the song and its responding listeners suggest emotional and cognitive reactions to the narratees of the Odyssey. This song also reflects the two earlier ones, and it is this dialogical relationship that leads to the epic's tragic signification.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 208-225 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | Mnemosyne |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2006 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:1) The research involved in preparing this paper was supported by the Israel Science Foundation founded by the Israel Academy for Sciences and Humanities. 2) See Scholia A and T on the opening lines of the Iliad; for modern approaches see Griffin 1980, 118-9, Rutherford 1982 and Taplin 1992, 73. 3) See Rutherford 1991-3, 38 and 41.
Publisher Copyright:
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2006