Epic World

<p>Reconceptualizing the epic genre and opening it up to a world of storytelling <i>The Epic World </i>makes a timely and bold intervention toward understanding the human propensity to aestheticize and normalize mass deployments of power and violence. The collection broadly considers three kinds of epic literature: conventional celebratory tales of conquest that glorify heroism especially male heroism; anti-epics or stories of conquest from the perspectives of the dispossessed the oppressed the despised and the murdered; and heroic stories utilized for imperialist or nationalist purposes.</p><p><i>The Epic World</i> illustrates global patterns of epic storytelling such as the durability of stories tied to religious traditions and/or to peoples who have largely stayed put; the tendency to reimagine and retell stories in new ways over centuries; and the imbrication of epic storytelling and forms of colonialism and imperialism especially those perpetuated and glorified by Euro-Americans over the past 500 years resulting in unspeakable and immeasurable harms to humans other living beings and the planet Earth.</p><p><i>The Epic World</i> is a go-to volume for anyone interested in epic literature in a global framework. Engaging with powerful stories and ways of knowing beyond those of the predominantly white Global North this field-shifting volume exposes the false premises of Western civilization and Classics and brings new questions and perspectives to epic studies.</p>