We are pleased to launch the Yearbook of Ancient Greek Epic (YAGE) to be published annually by Brill starting in 2016. The yearbook will cover the entire epic tradition from Homer to Nonnus. With each installment addressing a special topic, YAGE will be a platform for the dissemination of cutting-edge, synthetic research on Ancient Greek epic.
For Volume 1 (2016) and Volume 2 (2017), we invite submissions on any area of Ancient Greek epic, but we are especially interested in submissions on two special topics:
- Volume 1’s special topic will be “Epic Middles”:
Work has been done on beginnings and endings, but what of the middle? What defines the middle of an epic? Does the middle function in the same way in written and oral epic poetry? In the case of Homeric epic, contributors might engage with the thorny issue of book-division and performance units or explore the reality of “fluctuating middles,” that is, the fact that the “middle” changed each time a performer decided to present smaller sections of the entire epic. How does the concept of a “fluctuating middle” relate to ancient evidence concerning the performance of what we consider now a single episode or thematic unit of the Iliad and the Odyssey? Other relevant questions linked to middles include, for instance, the extent to which the middle of a work becomes a site for metapoetic exploration containing a second address to the Muse or Muses or other features of a poetological tincture.
- Volume 2’s special topic will be “Ancient Greek Epic and Ancient Greek Tragedy”:
Scholarship has explored the influence of Homeric epic on Attic tragedy. We propose a more focused exploration of Greek epic’s (above all, post-classical epic’s) interactions with tragedy. Relevant questions include: How did poets, such as Apollonius, make use of the work of tragedians like Euripides? What did it mean for an epic poet, presenting his work in a very different fashion, to cite or deploy work intended for the tragic stage? Did audiences respond to “tragic” elements in epic the same way they responded to tragic dramas? Do ancient theories about how tragedy works apply to epic? How does the hero of the tragic stage compare with the hero of epic? How does the tragic chorus relate to choral elements in epic?
All submissions will be subject to a process of double blind peer review. We ask authors to prepare submissions accordingly. Submissions for volume 1 will be accepted until September 1, 2015. Submissions for volume 2 will be accepted until September 1, 2016.
Please send submissions in pdf format via email to either Jonathan Ready or Christos Tsagalis.
- Jonathan Ready, Associate Professor of Classical Studies, Indiana University: jready@indiana.edu
- Christos Tsagalis, Professor of Greek, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki: christos.tsagalis@gmail.com