Speech Representation in the Homeric Epics

FAIN: FB-50234-04

Deborah Beck
Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA 19081-1390)

The proposed study looks at the full range of speech representational strategies in the Homeric epics and how these strategies relate to their contexts. Overall, my objectives are to 1) illustrate the particular properties of each technique, 2) show how each of the different modes of speech representation that appear in the Homeric epics has its own unique role to play in telling the story, and 3) relate these different modes of representation to one another so as to arrive at a cohesive, connected system of techniques for representing speech. My study will show that if we look at "speech" in Homeric epic as a range of phenomena, and not as "direct speech" vs. "everything else", we will gain a fuller and more accurate understanding of the narrative strategies that are used in the Homeric epics and so of the epics themselves.

Associated Products

Speech Presentation in Homeric Epic database (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: Speech Presentation in Homeric Epic database
Author: Deborah Beck
Abstract: This database makes the data behind _Speech Presentation in Homeric Epic_ available to anyone with an Internet connection. It is fully searchable and does not require any special software to use.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://www.laits.utexas.edu/DeborahBeck/home
Access Model: open access

Speech Presentation in Homeric Epic (Book)
Title: Speech Presentation in Homeric Epic
Author: Deborah Beck
Abstract: Drawing on narratology and linguistics, this first systematic examination of all the speeches in the Iliad and the Odyssey reveals a unified system of speech presentation in the Homeric epics that includes supposedly “modern” techniques such as free indirect speech.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/speech-presentation-in-homeric-epic/oclc/857638070
Access Model: print, ebook
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 978-0-292-7567
Copy sent to NEH?: No

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