Homeric Conversation, by Deborah Beck
The Center for Hellenic Studies is pleased to announce the online publication of Homeric Conversation, by Deborah Beck on the CHS website.
Homeric Conversation is the first full-length study of conversation in the Homeric poems. Deborah Beck argues that conversation should be considered a traditional Homeric type scene, alongside recognized types such as arrival, sacrifice, battle, and hospitality. Drawing on both linguistics and previous work on type scenes and oral aesthetics, the book describes the typical conversational patterns that characterize a range of situations, including one-on-one conversation, formal assemblies, battlefield encounters, and laments. Departures from these typical patterns for conversation provide the basis for a wide-ranging, closely argued aesthetic analysis of repetition and variation in the Homeric epics.
Deborah Beck is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics at Swarthmore College.
Deborah Beck is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics at Swarthmore College.
Scholars interested in this work might also be interested in:
- Albert B. Lord, The Singer of Tales
- Egbert J. Bakker, Pointing at the Past: From Formula to Performance in Homeric Poetics
- Gregory Nagy, Short Writings, Volume 2
- Richard P. Martin, The Language of Heroes:Speech and Performance in the Iliad