Ali,
I'm not sure if you've cast off from the issue of biographical
poetry. Certainly many, if not most, prose biographies are as you
describe. But one of the interesting things about biographical poetry
is how it can avoid that model. The sequence is the easiest way it
circumvents the conventional teleological narrative of biography. The
emphasis on discrete moments also does this. And the emphasis on
family members often takes us away from the realm of 'famous people'.
About the epic-again I think I'll let that one go through to the
keeper.
Cheers,
David
>I just wonder how interesting a biography could be without the
>inclusion of history.
>I think most biographies are entirely historical i.e. the lives of real-life,
>important and famous people; and well, even if their subjects are
>living (bio),
>their lives are still chronoligically narrated in retrospect - as a
>history. call it
>personal, but a history nonetheless. Now, about the epic, I think
>you've hit the
>nail on its head but somehow bent it by landing the hammer too hard;
>some epics
>could indeed be seen as biographies of nations - Pan Tadeuz,
>Shahnameh, the Aeneid -
>but their subject matter is not limited to a 'body of legend'. In a modernist
>example, in H.D's 'Trilogy', you'll find neither nationalism nor an
>acceptance of
>mythology - but plenty of personal history and private spirituality.
>Winning of the
>West may or may not be a 'proper' subject for a nationalist American
>epic, but i
>doubt it'd make for a particularly interesting one wihtin the
>postmodern - Darn it
>partner, I've got the news on the TV if I'm into watching Amercian
>cowboys bomb and
>invade the rest of the planet; I don't need poetry for that.
>
>Ali
>
>---- Original Message ----
>From: Erminia Passannanti
>Date: Tue 11/13/01 5:12
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: biographical poetry - you mean History?
>
>Therefore: The Epics of America (not the biography of America)....
>
>"or else narrative poetry".
>From the Merriam - Webster Dictionary
>
>Epics: a series of events or body of legend or tradition thought to form
>the proper subject of an epic <the winning of the West was a great American
>epic>
>
>Have I expandend my point?
>
>with love, Erminia
--
________________
Dr David McCooey
Lecturer in Literary Studies
Honours Co-ordinator
School of Literary and Communication Studies
Deakin University
Geelong
Victoria
Australia 3217
ph: 61 3 5227 1331
fax: 61 3 5227 2484
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