lectue 2

Question 1

what was the first british epic poem?

Answer 1

The faerie queen by spenser (1590). It was an Arthurian epic and nationalist poem

Question 2

what was Milton’s religion

Answer 2

calvinism NOT mianstream christian

Question 3

parallels between Odyssey and the illiad and PL

Answer 3

1) dramatise the fall (of a place in the case of the odyssey/ illiad)
2) Orality, unlike the faerie queen, PL is a poem which is meant to be read due to its syllabic and stressed diction

Question 4

structure of homeric epics

Answer 4

cyclic narrative

Question 5

structure of the aneid

Answer 5

linear narrative

Question 6

epic features in paradise lost (3)

Answer 6

1) starts in medias res: on day 13 of a 33 day long poem
2) catalouge (listing), topography, vistas, cosmic imagery, wars and battles
3) Satan who is like an epic hero

Question 7

in what ways is satan an epic hero? (3)

Answer 7

1) he has interiority
2) he has freedom of mind (even if according to God it is illusory)
3) he casts himself a s a proto-existentialist hero who lings to be ‘free’ if only to have freedom to destroy

Question 8

steven biko quote on opression (i write what i like)

Answer 8

The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed

Question 9

which narrative texts can this steven beko quote be connected to?

Answer 9

Fredrick Douglass (through his act of re-writing)
The wasteland (the reader thinking independently, uses their oppressed mind to free themselves from the constraints of modern life)