Description
Book SynopsisEpic Ambitions in Modern Times explores how artists in varied genres and media have aimed for, in Milton’s phrase, ”things unattempted yet” in epic creation. Starting with the last books of Paradise Lostas a farewell to the ancient tradition of epic and extending to an assessment of four twenty-first-century women writers retelling canonical epics in the voices of marginalized characters, the book’s intervening chapters consider epic in the forms of an epistolary novel, a work of history, a poetic autobiography, an opera, a silent film, a series of paintings, two literary fantasies, three poems set in the future and a play.
Trade ReviewWriting for a broad audience, this veteran college teacher provides attractive introductory accounts of, among multiple other works, Richardson’s novel Clarissa (1748), Gibbon’s history Decline and Fall (completed in 1789), Wagner’s massive operatic Ring (1876), Abel Gance’s film Napoleon (1927), Tony Kushner’s celebrated drama Angels in America (1991), and Frederick Turner’s futuristic science fiction verse epics. Particularly effective is the illustrated chapter devoted to Jacob Lawrence’s 60 small panel paintings The Migration Series (half of which are in the Phillips Collection [DC], the other half in New York City's Museum of Modern Art). This fine chapter (among others) will reward nonspecialists and teachers seeking new ways of satisfying impulses once served by the classical form. --CHOICE
Gracefully written and always interesting, it is a pleasure to read for its own sake as well as for its contributions to our understanding of the many diverse ways in which the desire for epic, “the oldest literary genre,” has been expressed by Milton and his artistic descendants. This book is a gift - Extrapolation
“A brilliant re-thinking and re-engagement with the epic and its transformations, Epic Ambitions in Modern Times: From Paradise Lost to the New Millennium is rich and capacious. Bursting with marvelous surprises and witty analyses, it is theoretically informed and historically adept. Questioning the death of the epic after Milton, Robert Crossley embarks on a lively literary odyssey across centuries, continents, and genres to trace an ever-transforming tradition of epic making in poetry, prose, visual art, and popular culture. He makes visible, luminous, and inevitable the ambitions of a panoply of writers and artists to craft and create forms of epics, but he rewards the reader by maintaining a persuasive focus on tangible, carefully-honed illustrations in modern formats and incarnations, such as Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, Jacob Lawrence’s The Great Migration, and Ursula Le Guin’s Lavinia. .” - Thadious M. Davis, Professor Emerita of English, University of Pennsylvania, USA.
"Since literary theory declared the end of ‘grand narratives’ a generation ago, a major gap has opened up in our critical understanding of epic, and in our ability to recognize and appreciate the extraordinary return of the epic sensibility in the popular imagination. Robert Crossley’s erudite but genial and accessible criticism splendidly repairs the deficiency and in the process promises a new opening and a new audience for literary studies in general.”– Frederick Turner, Professor Emeritus – Literature and Creative Writing, University of Texas , USA.
“Paradise Lost is the crucial text for the narrative undertaken here, it is reinforced by numerous references to Milton’s vow to pursue‘Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhyme’ (Paradise Lost I.16), but the fascination with epic continues in ways that Milton could not have imagined. This book is exemplary, and quite impressive.“– Patrick A. McCarthy, Professor of English, University of Miami, USA.
“This book presents genuinely new insights about Paradise Lost. I have no doubt that the readers will profit both in terms of knowledge and the sheer enjoyment of acquiring it. Excellent work, all around—a book that presents a strongly individual perspective grounded in deep reading and wide experience of literature and the world.”– Michael Bryson, Professor of English, California State University, USA.
Table of ContentsList of Figures; Acknowledgments; Chapter One Whatever Happened to the Epic?, [Introduction to the fate of epic in the past three centuries and the influence of Milton]; Chapter Two Leaving Paradise, [The final books of Paradise Lost and the end of an epic tradition]; Chapter Three An Epic Told in Letters, [The migration of epic to the novel in Richardson’s Clarissa]; Chapter Four Prospects and Living Pictures, [Epic history-writing in Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]; Chapter Five Analyzing a Soul, [Wordsworth’s Prelude and Autobiographical Epic]; Chapter Six Epic Heroinism, [The Icelandic Völsunga Saga and Wagner’s Ring]; Chapter Seven Cinematic Spectacle and the Hero, [The epic in film: Hollywood in the 1960s, and Abel Gance’s silent Napoléon]; Chapter Eight Paradise Sought: The African American Odyssey, [The Great Migration in memoir, poetry, fiction and Jacob Lawrence’s paintings]; Chapter Nine Imaginary History and Epic Fantasy, [Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and Silmarillion]; Chapter Ten The Epic in Future Tense, [Frederick Turner’s three epic poems: The New World, Genesis and Apocalypse]; Chapter Eleven Eleven Heaven and Hell Reimagined, [Tony Kushner’s Angels in America]; Chapter Twelve Translating and Recentering Old Epics, [Contemporary translations of ancient epics and fictional adaptations by Margaret Atwood, Ursula LeGuin, Madeline Miller, Maria Dahvana Headley]; Index
