Narrative Tradition In Early Greek Oral Poetry And Vase-Painting
نویسندگان
چکیده
Archaic Athenian vase-painting of the sixth century BC exhibits visual narrative phenomena that are very similar to the verbal narrative patterns of traditional, orally composed poetry: in the poetry these are the familiar formulaic phrases and themes analyzed by Milman Parry and the ensuing train of oral theorists; in the art they take the form of repetitious iconography and recurrent compositional structures.1 In the vase-paintings as in the poems the same question arises: do the repetitions have an aesthetic or significatory function in the narrative context, or are they rather incidental and even impedimental to the process of reception? In his recent work on oral traditions, John Miles Foley (1991) has recognized the need to develop a new theory of reception for oral and oral-derived poetry, one that takes into specific account the peculiar characteristics of oral composition. It will be argued that this theory can usefully be applied also to the vasepaintings. In regard to poetry, Foley has proceeded by seeking to define a question, the answer to which is constituted by the characteristics of oral composition. Starting from the premise that the repetitious noun-epithet formulas are significatory rather than redundant, and accepting that their signification cannot regularly be conferred by the context in which they are
منابع مشابه
The Vengeance of Achilles: The Impact of Viewing Context and Reception on Visual Narrative
This paper attempts to prove the significance of the viewing context and reception of an image for the developments in the modes of narration used to depict a scene and subsequently that scene’s iconography. In particular, it will examine the iconographic and narrative evolution of images depicting the vengeance of Achilles in Late Archaic black-figure vase-painting as well as in a series of Ro...
متن کاملThe Representation of European Landscapes in Later Safavid Painting
From the middle of the Safavid era, with the expansion of relations with the West, European landscapes were used in various ways in the composition of paintings called “FARANGI-SAZI”. In this article, by adopting a hermeneutic approach, the epistemological context necessary for the emergence of “landscape painting” as an independent genre in European painting has been studied and then the trans...
متن کاملInescapable Stories: The Infiltration of Narrative into Non-Narrative Poetry
Narrative permeates our lives, often without our noticing. We commonly recognise it in conventional arenas of storytelling, such as in the oral tradition, or in prose and film. There is also a long-held classification, narrative poetry within that particular literary art. I am exploring how narrative exists in more subtle expressions, especially within so-called lyric poetry. Can a supposedly n...
متن کاملAncient Greece: fundamental transition from convention-based to observation-based art.
The realistic representation of the human figure is one of the hallmarks of ancient Greek art. It reflects the increasing importance of observation in that culture. In painting and sculpture the transition from pure decoration to naturalist representation began in the Archaic period (600 – 480 BC), and continued through the Pre-Classical (480 – 450 BC) and Classical (450 – 400 BC) periods of Gr...
متن کاملHipponax and the Homeric Odysseus
Few will doubt that tracing Homer (and Homeric epos) on subsequent classical authors, in all its varied manifestations, has proved to be an enlightening critical enterprise. Indeed, it has become nearly impossible to consider the poetry of the so-called archaic lyric period without acknowledging at some level its relation to Homer and the epic tradition. It is a pity, therefore, that in this re...
متن کامل