All posts filed under: epic

Notes to Bakhtin: Between the Epic and the Novel

Friday, September 21, 2007
by Taylor Adkins
comments 4
Bakhtin / chronotope / epic / genre / literary theory / novel / Zizek

M.M. Bakhtin. “Epic and Novel.” The Dialogic Imagination. Ed. Michael Holquist. Austin: UTP, 1981. 3-40. Bakhtin writes “the novel is the sole genre that continues to develop, that is as yet uncompleted” (3). The epic, on the other hand, is a completed and antiquated genre. Bakhtin notes that “Of all the major genres only the novel is younger than writing and the book: it alone is organically receptive to new forms of mute perception, that […]

The Hero and the Kingly Function: Starkadr in Dumezil’s Stakes of the Warrior

Monday, September 3, 2007
by Taylor Adkins
comment 1
Anti-Oedipus / Dumezil / epic / incest / kingly function / mythology / sovereignty / war machine

There are two versions of the story of Starkadr (Starcatherus), one Latin, the other Old Icelandic. Starkadr is forced into a precarious position, caught between Odin and Thor. Here I will follow the Icelandic tale for concision, only referring to the Latin to offset some details. In the Icelandic tale there are two Starkadrs—the hero’s grandfather is of the same name. The first Starkadr is a powerful giant and is slain by Thor because the […]