Since the time that the Epic genre has passed along some of the greatest works in literature, such as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, there is a noticeable gap in the attention it has received in spite of its influential past. The genre continues to enjoy periodical bursts of success that extends beyond the 13th century, and various works have maintained a status of exceptional etiquette among scholars of the literary discipline. The question is, why has there been fewer Epics written, and what has become of this style of literature? It is encouraged to research the background of the Epic genre, and the examples that represent it. A suggestion is to analyze the style of these pieces over the course of time, and how they portray the period in which they are written. And finally, it may be of great importance to see how certain Epics have continued or have been remodeled in the recent years (a brilliant example is the television adaption of War and Peace), and what that may mean about the modern approach to this ancient genre.
I would suggest to anyone taking on this topic to consider epics from all periods/civilizations, from the Epic of Gilgamesh, The Ramayana, and Dante's Divine Comedy to Paradise Lost in addition to War and Peace as a more recent example. The answer to this question may lie in looking at the rise of the novel as popular form. – MichelleAjodah9 years ago
A lot of people, myself included, would consider works like LOTR and Star Wars to be Epics, so it's not like they're not around, or that they're unpopular, but, I think in a way they aren't taken seriously as canon, rather, films/books/etc. like that are usually referred to these days as "fandoms." Nevertheless, the later Epics still have the same qualities (hero journey, specific arcs, etc.) as a work like Beowulf, so there definitely is so much to learn and to take seriously. Perhaps it's some people's belief that more modern works have not yet become immortal. Also, in the literary world, it's rough because query letters have to be short, you have to worry about word count--there's always something tricky to bypass. So many times it's all about what's quick. It's definitely an interesting topic. One could certainly write about what you mentioned, about the remodeling of the Epic, especially since so many are on film/television and there is a huge transition between cutting things out and separating the Epic by different films and episodes. Either way, and bare bones, it's possible not a lot show up all the time because frankly, sometimes it takes a lifetime to complete a great work. – Jaye Freeland9 years ago
^ Remember that this meant to provide a revision or helpful note to the topic, as that could be the kind of response that a writer may take to use for their topic. I appreciate and enjoy what you have written, but this is a topic to give others an idea for something to write out, not necessarily to provoke a response. But I highly recommend you take the topic, as you could do well with writing about this subject. – N.D. Storlid9 years ago
Ah! Thank you! I appreciate that. Hmm. I think, then, to break everything down, the person who is interested is writing about might want to research society now verses hundreds of years ago, how society interacts with Epics and "Fandoms" now, what is deemed more marketable in the publishing community, and how long it takes to come up with a larger work. – Jaye Freeland9 years ago
Lifestyle and technology may have impeded the resonance of the epic. Immediacy, innovation, and quick change create tension with the journey and struggle which are elemental to epic. – Jeffery Moser9 years ago
There are many times in novels where betrayal has occurred in certain friendships for example like Macbeth and Banquo. Can we really let go and forgive others? How do you show your justification for this? If your best friend betrays you, would you be okay?
Looking at literary examples, this might be better suited in the Literature Category. Nice revision! – MichelleAjodah9 years ago
Forms of betrayal and the various responses in literature abound, especially in Shakespeare. – Munjeera9 years ago
Looking at Shaekspeare would be very interesting. His stories are mostly tragic, so the characters definitely tend to overreact. – noursaleh9 years ago
I think it is important to distinguish between forgiving and having satisfaction. Is it really forgiveness if you have exacted revenge, or gained full restitution? – P. Thomas. Piche9 years ago
Are any of us "okay" after betrayal, and does forgiveness make it okay? A nice angle to explore might be how characters, and real people, reach forgiveness without excusing the behavior. You could also explore how people make peace with the fact that they are not okay. – Stephanie M.8 years ago
The novel World War Z is structured as an oral history, in which dozens of survivors of a zombie apocalypse are interviewed on their experiences. The interview format is one of the most striking things about the novel, and what sets it apart from other zombie apocalypse stories. How does this structure change the readers' perception of events? What role does the unnamed and uncharacterized narrator play? If the novel were kept the same but followed a single character, possibly with flashbacks to other events, would our perception of the world change? What does this wide range of stories bring to the novel, and how do the separate interviews still form an overarching story arc?
Analyse different characters in novels who's race/ethnicity were left open for reader's interpretation. For example, in wake of the new casting of a black Hermione Granger, many people are going back to the Harry Potter books to find evidence of "whiteness" to discredit having a black Hermione. Although, never stated in the books she was black or white, many people, by default, believed that Hermione was white. Talk about why people automatically assume a default description of a character's appearance and if it hurts or helps a book series to keep a character's physical appearance open for other's to interpret.
This new development has brought up a lot of fanart made of Hermione as black which was made before the announcement. Some people interpreted her that way all along and I think that's great! It adds layers to the character's possibilities and even strengthens the "mudblood" discrimination she endures. – Slaidey9 years ago
I love to read novel while traveling. it gives me peace of mind. I love to travel solo. – WilliamRiley9 years ago
I asked my sister about this yesterday, actually, and she told me she knows Hermione was supposed to be white because the front cover of the book showed a white character, which was supposed to be Hermione. If not for the front cover of the book, it would be easy to assume that Hermione was black – carleydauria9 years ago
For some covers of "Wizard of Earthsea", Ged, who was explicitly described to have "red brown" skin, was depicted as white. Granted, this was quite a while ago, but it shows that the publishers would push people to believe that the main characters are white. – idleric9 years ago
I go by the cover too, seeing her white on the cover makes me think she was envisioned as white. This is just one casting decision, in a few years, they'll do the play again and Hermione will be Chinese or Arab or something and we'll have ourselves a whole new race to look at her with. – SpectreWriter9 years ago
There has also been discussion about the white casting of Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games as her skin colouring was always described as 'olive' suggesting she might be of mixed race since her mother and sister who are blonde are suggested to be quite different looking from the rest of the people in District 12 http://jezebel.com/5781682/the-imminent-whitewashing-of-the-hunger-games-heroine – Jacqueline Wallace9 years ago
Around three-quarters of the way through RPW's masterpiece, Jack Burden observes Adam Stanton perform a lobotomy on one of his patients. Some have argued that the lobotomy represents Jack's disassociation with the present, yet some will go further and say that Jack is watching himself undergo a lobotomy, as a sort of 'out of body' experience. Talk about the possible reasons for Jack's fascination with the surgery…what is the relationship between "The Great Twitch" and the lobotomy? Are Jack's "Great Sleeps" just the same as a lobotomy? Analyze the implications of a lobotomy in terms of Jack's existential crisis, and perhaps suggest an explanation for Jack's eventual disgust with the surgery.
Analyse the early works of feminism in literature and today's. For example, compare Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre to Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, Talk about the way women are depicted in these novels, why they're feminist, and what message both novels are trying to give to women.
This is an amazing topic. Many people today believe in feminism so much that its getting to the point of woman over man instead of woman and man. Too many novels are using feminism to the point to where younger girls automatically think that they are better than boys, just because a book made them think that. – KayD46569 years ago
I agree with Kay on this matter, as a senior in Digital Media one point that we study is how media has shifted and how many people today make characters more for the purpose of expressing feminism rather than just making the character. Even Joss Whedon, creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is still asked why he writes strong female characters to which he responds he just wrote what he believed a female character as if an instinct and not for the purpose of making a female look strong. The problem is that these days people actually TRY to make women look strong-willed, but what they are actually doing is downplaying male character to make the female character look better. The point of equality is to not "try" and make it but to see it there as if it is a part of our natural law or our instinct. Once people understand those aspects of what it truly means to be equal, it is more likely that we will see more accurate depictions of feminism like that of Jane Eyre, Little Women, and other strong-willed females without the need for a person to actual try to create one. – Kevin Mohammed9 years ago
Consider feminism from the philosophical point of view. Use existential works. Simone de Beauvoir's "The second sex" for instance. – kimletaon8 years ago
The words 'banned book' can tend to drive people away from good content. But there are many reasons why everyone should consider reading at least one book that has been challenged or banned. This article would explore the benefits of reading such books. What kinds of lessons do works such as "The Lorax" or "Go Ask Alice" have to teach us? Has some of the books on this list been falsely accused (for example the Oxford Dictionary)? In short, banned books still have a lot to offer us, and are vastly under-appreciated.
I feel that this can be very broad a topic without specifying location. Do you mean on reading lists in America? Or in Europe? Or Germany? Culture relevancy is a major reason why books are banned, and gaining an understanding of why books are banned in specific locations can help the author reach a more poignant conclusion. – Jemarc Axinto9 years ago
Agree with the above. Also, I think it's obvious that controversial literature still has 'a lot to offer us' - the discussion could perhaps to be orientated on how their banning has added to their value to make a more audacious link. – JekoJeko9 years ago
I agree with Jemarc that with such a broad topic it needs to be narrowed down some more or even give more details on multiple points to give a general feel of the article. – Kevin Mohammed9 years ago
I don't think this topic can been justice without squeezing the concept of freedom from it. Whether books are banned or not is a question of whether a society (or nation) operates under a framework of freedom which allows certain types of books to be labeled as banned. For instance, I would venture a guess that when most Americans think of banned books they associate imagery of the Nazis burning books or of communist nations destroying books deemed dissident (in which case the author too is hunted down and silenced.) However, there have been plenty of banned books in America too. Bukowski and Vonnegut for example, in the realm of fiction. And Howard Zinn in the realm of academic non-fiction. I think this topic could lead to an interesting and important conversation about how much banned books can tell us about the level of freedom which a society operates under. – mcutler19 years ago
Definitely a great topic. I would suggest researching Banned Book Week and see if the BannedBooksWeek website has any resources that would be of service to you. There were some notes on your topic being a little too general. Maybe, if you'd like, you could narrow your banned book search by grade level (i.e. Elementary, Middle Grade, High School) or, you can break it down by canon or contemporary. Or both! – Jaye Freeland9 years ago
Amen! Actually, banning a book makes a lot of people more eager to read and explore it. – Stephanie M.8 years ago
I love the Percy Jackson series. I love what it did for introducing kids to classical mythology, I love Percy and Annabeth so much as characters, and I love the cabin system of sorting kids. However, I am really interested in how Riordan took the content of classical epic (gods, battles, mythical creatures, heroics), and infused them with what is, in essence a very modern story of a misfit kid struggling to fit in and find out what he's good at. Does Riordan borrow from epics like the Odyssey or the Aeneid in terms of style or characterization, or only in providing the window-dressing for what is just any other YA tale? Specifically, I'd be interested in seeing a character comparison of Odysseus and Percy Jackson, and ways that they are similar or contrasted, whether directly or indirectly in the series.
Personally, since you brought it up, another angle would be asking whether Riordan borrowed from Greek Mythology. Having said that, I do not see any objection with examining Riordan's works with the Odyssey, or the Iliad (though probably less with the Aeneid, because it is Roman in origin). As such, I would consider expanding the topic to include the aforementioned Greek Mythology, but have no problem with the topic as is. – JDJankowski9 years ago
I mean, obviously Riordan borrows information from Greek mythology in general, and given that his second series, Heroes of Olympus, tries to hybridize Greek and Roman mythologies, I'm sure there is some borrowing from the Aeneid in his distinction between a typical Greek and Roman hero, culture, and ideal mindset. What interests me is to what extent Percy's characterization as an impulsive, affectionate, dorky middle schooler is utterly alien to the tone and kinds of characters we find in traditional examples of Greek mythology, like the Odyssey. My gut response is no, the people in the Odyssey are larger-than-life heroes, which is an interesting analysis of how we just use flavoring from other cultures to tell the same kinds of stories that fit our culture. However, Odysseus isn't the paragon of heroism or virtue - he lies, gets lucky, conveniently forgets about his wife, accidentally makes way too many enemies, has a smart mouth etc. I think the two of them could be more similar than we give them credit for, which would also have interesting implications for the series. – thekellyfornian9 years ago
I think you make a very good point about the story here and though it has been a while since I've read the Percy jackson series, I do remember it being a bit of a leap from the classical myths. In Greek Mythology there is a lot more adult themes that appear which is why I think Riordan has tones it down for his series. I do think it is a great idea for him to add in more illusions to different Greek myths, but as these stories are meant for young adults, he needs to be careful about how he goes about including them. – laurenintheclouds9 years ago
