Misplaced Pages

National epic: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from[REDACTED] with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 16:54, 12 December 2020 editCarchasm (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users27,692 edits Undid revision 993810820 by 2A02:A446:CCD8:1:2B:E77F:7E40:E684 (talk)Tag: Undo← Previous edit Revision as of 16:55, 12 December 2020 edit undoCarchasm (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users27,692 edits Undid revision 993751396 by Lettherebedarklight (talk) - See discussion on removing examples on Talk:National epicTags: Undo Reverted Non-autoconfirmed user rapidly reverting edits section blankingNext edit →
Line 16: Line 16:


In the early 20th century, the phrase no longer necessarily applies to an epic poem, and occurs to describe a literary work that readers and critics agree is emblematical of the literature of a nation, without necessarily including details from that nation's historical background. In this context the phrase has definitely positive connotations, as for example in ]'s '']'' where it is suggested '']'' is Spain's national epic while Ireland's remains as yet unwritten: <blockquote>They remind one of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Our national epic has yet to be written, Dr Sigerson says. Moore is the man for it. A knight of the rueful countenance here in Dublin.<ref>James Joyce. ''Ulysses'', Vintage Books, New York, 1961, 189 (p.192)</ref><br></blockquote> In the early 20th century, the phrase no longer necessarily applies to an epic poem, and occurs to describe a literary work that readers and critics agree is emblematical of the literature of a nation, without necessarily including details from that nation's historical background. In this context the phrase has definitely positive connotations, as for example in ]'s '']'' where it is suggested '']'' is Spain's national epic while Ireland's remains as yet unwritten: <blockquote>They remind one of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Our national epic has yet to be written, Dr Sigerson says. Moore is the man for it. A knight of the rueful countenance here in Dublin.<ref>James Joyce. ''Ulysses'', Vintage Books, New York, 1961, 189 (p.192)</ref><br></blockquote>

==Poetic epics==
Poems that have been described as national epics include:

===Africa===
*Egypt – '']''
*Mali – '']''
*Nigeria –
**'']''
**'']''
**'']''

===Americas===
*Argentina –
**'']'' by ]<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Gaucho Martin Fierro {{!}} work by Hernández|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Gaucho-Martin-Fierro|access-date=2020-09-05|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref>
**'']'' by ]
**'']'' by ]
**'']'' by ]
*Brazil –
**'']'' by ]
**'']'' by ]
**''Guesa'' by ]
**''{{ill|Os Timbiras|pt}}'' by ]
*Chile –
**] by ]
**'']'' by ]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Canto general {{!}} work by Neruda|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Canto-general|access-date=2020-09-05|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref>
*Puerto Rico
**] by ]<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Aldama|first=Frederick Luis|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1143649021|title=Poets, philosophers, lovers: On the Writings of Giannina Braschi|publisher=U Pittsburgh|others=Stavans, Ilan; O'Dwyer, Tess|year=2020|isbn=978-0-8229-4618-2|location=Pittsburgh, Pa.|pages=5–10|oclc=1143649021}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Cruz-Malavé|first=Arnaldo Manuel|date=2014|title="Under the Skirt of Liberty": Giannina Braschi Rewrites Empire|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43823431|journal=American Quarterly|volume=66|issue=3|pages=801–818|doi=10.1353/aq.2014.0042|jstor=43823431|s2cid=144702640|issn=0003-0678}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Petrovic|first1=Paul|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u_y9CQAAQBAJ&q=braschi+lowry+banana&pg=PA155|title=Representing 9/11: Trauma, Ideology, and Nationalism in Literature, Film, and Television|last2=Lowry, Elizabeth|date=2015-06-17|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-1-4422-5268-4|pages=155–157|language=en}}</ref>
*Saint Lucia
**] by ]<ref>{{Cite news|last=Lucas|first=Julian|date=2017-04-23|title=In Praise of Derek Walcott's Epic of the Americas|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/23/books/in-praise-of-derek-walcotts-epic-of-the-americas.html|access-date=2020-09-05|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Magazine|first=Porridge|date=2017-03-24|title=Derek Walcott, humour, and the postcolonial epic – Georgia Tindale|url=https://porridgemagazine.com/2017/03/24/derek-walcott-humour-and-the-postcolonial-epic-georgia-tindale/|access-date=2020-09-05|website=Porridge|language=en}}</ref>
*United States –
**'']'' by ]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Columbiad|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095625896|access-date=2020-09-05|website=Oxford Reference|language=en|doi=10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095625896|doi-broken-date=2020-11-18}}</ref>
**'']'' by ]<ref>{{cite book |last=Trachtenberg |first=Alan |title=Shades of Hiawatha: Staging Indians, Making Americans, 1880-1930 |url=https://archive.org/details/shadesofhiawatha00trac |url-access=registration |access-date=March 6, 2015 |year=2004 |publisher=Hill and Wang |isbn=978-0374299750 |page= |quote=A 'national folk epic' writes a recent commentator...}}</ref>
**'']'' by Longfellow (shared with Canada)<ref>{{Cite web|title=Evangeline {{!}} The Canadian Encyclopedia|url=https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/evangeline-emc|access-date=2020-09-05|website=thecanadianencyclopedia.ca}}</ref>
**'']'' by ]
**'']'' by ]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2005-07-31/entertainment/0507300078_1_epic-poems-20th-century |title=An American epic |author=Maureen N. McLane |author-link=Maureen N. McLane |date=July 31, 2005 |work=Chicago Tribune |quote=Walt Whitman published the first edition of 'Leaves of Grass,' the book, including 'Song of Myself,' that more than any other has a claim to be our national epic |access-date=March 6, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Bloom |editor1-first=Harold |editor2-last=McGowan |editor2-first=Tony |editor1-link=Harold Bloom |title=Herman Melville |series=Bloom's Classic Critical Views |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hf6vsKOP2UMC&pg=PR12 |access-date=March 6, 2015 |year=2007 |publisher=Chelsea House Publishers |isbn=978-0791095577 |page=12 |quote=How shall we judge Melville's total achievement, at its best? There is ''Moby-Dick'', only (though defeated) rival to ''Leaves of Grass'' as our national epic...}}</ref>
*Uruguay –
**'']'' by ]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Smith|first=Verity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JcjFBQAAQBAJ&q=La+Leyenda+Patria+by+Juan+Zorrilla+de+San+Mart%C3%ADn+national+epic+poem&pg=PA810|title=Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature|date=1997-03-26|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-31424-8|language=en}}</ref>

===Asia===

*Cambodia – '']''
*China – '']''
*Indian subcontinent
**India
***'']''
***'']''
***]
**Sri Lanka
***'']''
*Iran and ] speakers
**'']'' (legends and history of ] from earliest times to the end of the ] by ].)
**] by ]
*Iraq / Babylonians / Mesopotamia – '']''
*Indonesia
**'']''
**'']''
*Israel / Hebrews
**]
*Japan
**'']'' (] Monogatari)
*] (e.g. in ]) – '']''<ref></ref>
*Korea
**'']'' by Yi Seung-hyu
*Kyrgyz people – '']''
*Uzbek people - '']''
*Laos – '']''
*Mongols (Kalmyks and Oirats) – '']''
*Myanmar – '']''
*Philippines –
**'']''
**'']''
**'']''
**'']''
**'']''
**'']''
**'']''
*Tibet – '']''
*Thailand –
**'']''
**'']''
**'']''
**'']''
*Turkey - '']''
*Vietnam - '']''

===Europe===
*Albania
** – '']'' (The Highland Lute) by ]
** - '']'' by ]
*Italy, ancient – '']'' by ]
*Armenia – '']'' (also known as "Sasuntsi Davit" after its main character, ])
*Bosnia and Herzegovina –
**'']'' folk poem
**'']'' by ]
*Bulgaria –
**'']'' (Epic of the Forgotten) by ]
*Catalonia – '']'' (1877) and '']'' (1886) by ]
*Croatia –
**'']'' by ]
*England
**'']''
**'']'' by ]
**'']'' by ]
**'']'' by ]
**], by ]
*Estonia – '']'' by ]
*Europe, especially southern –
**'']'' and '']'' by ]
**'']'' by ]
*Finland – '']'' by ]
*France
**'']''
**'']''
**'']''
**'']''
**'']'' by ]
**'']''
**'']'' by ]
*Georgia – '']'' by ]
*Germany
**'']''
**'']'' by ]
*Greece, Ancient (Hellas and Mediterranean Greek colonies) – '']'' and '']'' by ]
*Greece (]) – '']''
*Hungary – '']'' (Szigeti Veszedelem) by ]
*Iceland – The '']''
*Ireland
**'']''
**'']''
**'']''
**'']''
*Italy –
**'']'' by ]
**'']'' by ]
**'']'' by ]
**'']'' by ]
*Latvia – '']'' by ]
*Lithuania –
**'']'' by ]
**] by ]
**]'' by ]
*Luxembourg – '']'' by ]
*Montenegro – '']'' by ]
*The Netherlands –
**'']'' – (The local Netherlandic tale about the trickster fox ]) , probably written by ]
*Poland –
**] by ]
**'']'' ''by ]''
**] by ]
**] by ]
**] by ]
**'']'' by ]
**] and ] by ]
*Portugal –
**'']'' ("The Lusiads") by ]<ref name="WDL">{{cite web |url = http://www.wdl.org/en/item/11198/ |title = The Lusiads |website = ] |date = 1800–1882 |access-date = 2013-08-30 }}</ref>
**'']'' by ]
*Romania – '']''
*Russia -
** '']''
** ''Rossiada'' by ]
*Scotland –
**'']'' by ]
**'']'' by ]
**'']'' by ]
*Serbia -
**'']'' (folk poem)
*Slovakia -
**''Svatopluk'' by ]
**''Slávy Dcera'' by ]
*Slovenia – '']'', by ]
*Spain –
**'']''
**'']''
**'']'' by ] (shared with Chile)
*Udmurts – '']''
*Wales – '']''

===Oceania===
*Australia -
**'']'' by ]

==Prose epics by nation or region==
Some prose works, while not strictly epic poetry, have an important place in the national consciousness of their nations. These include the following:
*Arabs – '']''
*Argentina –
**'']'' by ]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Gaucho literature {{!}} South American literature|url=https://www.britannica.com/art/gaucho-literature|access-date=2020-09-05|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref>
*Australia -
**'']'' by ]
**'']'' by ]
**'']'' by ]
*Bulgaria –
**'']''
*Brazil –
**], by ]
**'']'', by ]
**'']'', by ]
*Britain –
**'']''
**'']''
**'']''
**], by ]
**'']'' by ]
*Canada –
**'']''
**'']''
*Catalonia –
**'']''
**The Four Great Chronicles:
***'']'' by ]
***'']'' by ]
***'']''
***'']'' by ]
**'']'', an epic romance, one of the best works of Catalan medieval literature.
*Chile
**'']'' by ], a 19th-century social realist romance novel on the Chilean revolution of the 1850s<ref>{{Cite journal|last=SOMMER|first=DORIS|date=1989|title=Foundational Fictions: When History Was Romance in Latin America|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40548050|journal=Salmagundi|issue=82/83|pages=111–141|jstor=40548050|issn=0036-3529}}</ref>
*China
** ] (impact across the ])
*** '']''
*** '']''
*** '']''
*** '']''
**'']'' (novel)
*Colombia –
**'']'', (''One Hundred Years of Solitude'') a contemporary novel that parallels Colombian history in the fictional town of ].
**'']'', (''The Vortex'') a contemporary novel with prosaic poetic interuldes that depicts life in the great pastures, the immensity and overwhelming nature of the ] and the appalling conditions under which workers in rubber factories toil.
**'']'', (At God's Right Side) a ] novel depicting life and culture in the ]
**'']'', a ] novel.
*Denmark – '']'' by ] (the main inspiration to '']'' by ])
*Ecuador
**'']'' Romantico national novel written by ]
*Egypt / Ancient Egyptians – '']''
*England –
**'']'' by ]
*Ethiopia & Eritrea – '']''
*Flanders (Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) –
**'']'' ("The Lion of Flanders")
*France
** '']''
** '']''
** '']''
** '']'' (a novel spanning a crucial era of French history)
*Georgia
**'']'' - ]
**'']'' - ]
**'']'' - ]
*Germany
**'']'' (a widely influential ] tragic novel)
**'']'' by ]
*Guatemala and Mexico – '']''
*Scandinavia and Iceland – The '']'' by ]
*Iceland - ]
*Iran - ] by ]
*Ireland
**'']'' (Prose narration with poetic interludes)
**'']'' (20th century adaptation of Homer's ''Odyssey'' by ])
*Israel / Hebrews
** – ] by ]
** - ], ] and ] by ]
** - ]
*Italy –
**'']'' by ]
**'']'' by ]
*Japan –
**'']'' (''Genji Monogatari'') by ]
**'']'' by ]
*Korea – '']'' (prose with songs)
*Malaysia –
**'']''
**'']''
**'']''
*Mayans – '']''
*Mexico
**''Visión de Anáhuac'' by ]
**''Estas ruinas que ves'' by ]
**''Clemencia'' by ]
**''La muerte del tigre'' by ]
**''El éxodo y las flores del camino'' by ]
**'']'' by ]
**'']'' by ]
*Mongolia –
**'']''
**'']'' (]'s biography)
*The Netherlands –
**'']'' – ]
**'']'' – ]
*Norway – '']'' by ]
*Pakistan - '']''
*Poland
**] – ]
**'']'' – ]
***'']''
***'']''
***'']''
**'']'' – ]
**] – ] {{Citation needed|date=August 2013}}
*Portugal – '']'' (see ])
*Philippines
**'']''
**'']''
**'']''
**'']''
**'']''
**'']''
*Russia –
**'']'' – ]
**'']''
**'']'' and '']'' – ]
**'']'' - ]
**'']'' and '']'' - ]
**'']'' - ]
*Scotland –
**'']'' – ]
**'']'' – ]
**'']'' - ]
*Spain –
**'']'' by ]
**'']'' – ]
*Sweden – '']''
*Switzerland – '']''
*Tatar – "]"<ref></ref>
*Thailand –
**'']'' ({{lang-th|มหาชาติคำหลวง}}) (1492): The semi-prose rendition of ], a hagiographical tale regarding a previous life of ].
**'']'' by ]
*Turkic peoples –
**'']''<ref></ref> (all ])
**'']'' (] nations: ], ], ], Turcomans of Iraq, as well as Central Asia and other Turkic nations)
**'']'' (] nations: ], ], ], and Turcomans of Iraq)
**] legend (])
**'']'' (] and ])
**'']'' (Central Asia, Uighurs and other Turkic nations)
*United States – (see also "]")
**'']'' by American satirist ]
**'']'', the 19th-century classic novel by ]
**'']'' novel set in the ] by ]
**'']'', by ].
**'']'', by ].
**'']'', by ].
**'']'', by ].
**'']'', by ]
**], by ]
**'']'', by ]
**] by ] (] national epic in poetry and prose)<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
*Venezuela – '']'' by ], a novel detailing the struggle between civilization and barbarism in early 20th century, as well as a psychological study of the Venezuelan plainsmen.
*Wales – '']''


==See also== ==See also==

Revision as of 16:55, 12 December 2020

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "National epic" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Karelian poem singing brothers Poavila and Triihvo Jamanen reciting traditional Finnish folk poetry, Russia, 1894.
Modern depiction of Vyasa narrating the Mahabharata to Ganesha at the Murudeshwara temple, Karnataka.

A national epic is an epic poem or a literary work of epic scope which seeks or is believed to capture and express the essence or spirit of a particular nation—not necessarily a nation state, but at least an ethnic or linguistic group with aspirations to independence or autonomy. National epics frequently recount the origin of a nation, a part of its history, or a crucial event in the development of national identity such as other national symbols. In a broader sense, a national epic may simply be an epic in the national language which the people or government of that nation are particularly proud of. It is distinct from a pan-national epic which is taken as representative of a larger cultural or linguistic group than a nation or a nation-state.

History

First page of Beowulf in Cotton Vitellius A. xv
Ján Hollý - author of the Slovak national epic poem Svatopluk.
Elias Lönnrot - author of the Finnish national epic poem Kalevala.
Dante Alighieri - author of the Divine Comedy.

In medieval times Homer's Iliad was taken to be based on historical facts, and the Trojan War came to be considered as seminal in the genealogies of European monarchies. Virgil's Aeneid was taken to be the Roman equivalent of the Iliad, starting from the Fall of Troy and leading up to the birth of the young Roman nation. According to the then prevailing conception of history, empires were born and died in organic succession and correspondences existed between the past and the present. Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th century classically inspired Historia Regum Britanniae, for example, fulfilled this function for the British or Welsh. Just as kings longed to emulate great leaders of the past, Alexander or Caesar, it was a temptation for poets to become a new Homer or Virgil. In 16th century Portugal, Luis de Camões celebrated Portugal as a naval power in his Os Lusíadas while Pierre de Ronsard set out to write La Franciade, an epic meant to be the Gallic equivalent of Virgil's poem that also traced back France's ancestry to Trojan princes.

The emergence of a national ethos, however, preceded the coining of the phrase national epic, which seems to originate with Romantic nationalism. Where no obvious national epic existed, the "Romantic spirit" was motivated to fill it. An early example of poetry that was invented to fill a perceived gap in "national" myth is Ossian, the narrator and supposed author of a cycle of poems by James Macpherson, which Macpherson claimed to have translated from ancient sources in Scottish Gaelic. However, many national epics (including Macpherson's Ossian) antedate 19th-century romanticism.

In the early 20th century, the phrase no longer necessarily applies to an epic poem, and occurs to describe a literary work that readers and critics agree is emblematical of the literature of a nation, without necessarily including details from that nation's historical background. In this context the phrase has definitely positive connotations, as for example in James Joyce's Ulysses where it is suggested Don Quixote is Spain's national epic while Ireland's remains as yet unwritten:

They remind one of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Our national epic has yet to be written, Dr Sigerson says. Moore is the man for it. A knight of the rueful countenance here in Dublin.

See also

References

  1. Paul Cohen, "In search of the Trojan Origins of French", in Fantasies of Troy, Classical Tales and the Social Imaginary in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Alan Shepard, Stephen David Powell eds., published by the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2004, p. 65 sq., ISBN 0-7727-2025-8. "Like many of their counterparts across Europe, seventh-century scholars in France had invented a myth of the Trojan origins of Gaul" (p. 67)
  2. Epic(in French) Liliane Kesteloot, University of Dakar
  3. James Joyce. Ulysses, Vintage Books, New York, 1961, 189 (p.192)

External links

Nationalism
Development
By type
Organizations
Related concepts
National symbols (list)
Topics
Lists
Galleries
Worldview
Related terms
Aspects
Biases
Change and
maintenance
Culture
Groupthink
Knowledge
Metaphysics
Value
Examples
Attitudes
Economic and
political ideologies
Religions
Schools of
philosophy
Categories:
National epic: Difference between revisions Add topic