Focalization: the use of evaluative adjectives and the narrator of the Iliad

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25187/codex.v6i2.19284

Keywords:

evaluative comments, focalizer, Iliad, primary narrator, oral epic Greek poetry

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate, applying narratology to early Greek hexameter poetry, moments when the primary narrator, in the pursuit of his activity as a focalizer, exposes his presence in the Iliad. In order to do this, we selected excerpts of the poem in which the narrator uses evaluative adjectives or establishes a difference between his own narration and the secondary ones by means of the filter he applies. We discuss evaluative adjectives that qualify the gods and humans and how they reveal a partial narrator who makes moral judgments about the gods, their objects and actions, and the humans. A second objective is to discuss the instance responsible for the narrative: divine, in view of the invocation of the Muse in the proem and in other moments of the poem, or human, in view of the traditional attribution of the singing to Homer.

Author Biographies

Gabriela Canazart, USP

Aluna de graduação na área de Letras Clássicas da Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas da Universidade de São Paulo.

Christian Werner, USPFocalization: the use of evaluative adjectives and the narrator of the Iliad

Professor de Língua e Literatura Grega na Universidade de São Paulo desde 2002, autor de Memórias da Guerra de Troia: a performance do passado épico na Odisseia de Homero (Coimbra 2018) e de uma tradução desse mesmo poema (São Paulo, 2014; 2a ed. 2018) e da Ilíada (São Paulo, 2018). Defendeu sua tese de livre-docência sobre a tradição épica arcaica grega em 2012. É líder do grupo de pesquisa Gêneros poéticos na Grécia antiga: tradição e contexto (CNPq/USP) e pesquisador dos grupos Estudos sobre o teatro antigo (CNPq/USP), Gêneros de prosa greco-latina (CNPq/USP) e Tradução e Recepção dos Clássicos (CNPq/UFC). Licenciado em Letras (Português e Grego) pela Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (1996), é mestre (1999) e doutor (2004) em letras clássicas pela Universidade de São Paulo; de 2009 e 2010, estágio de pós-doutorado na Freie Universitaet Berlin e, em 2014, na Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. Tem publicado e orientado trabalhos sobre diversos gêneros da literatura grega arcaica e clássica, discutindo noções como gênero discursivo e literário, narrativa, herói, tradição e performance sobretudo na poesia épica e trágica. Também tem publicado sobre a recepção da tradição clássica na obra de João Guimarães Rosa e no cinema contemporâneo. Seu projeto de pesquisa atual se debruça sobre os discursos de Aquiles e a representação da guerra na Ilíada.

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Published

2018-12-21

How to Cite

Canazart, G., & Werner, C. (2018). Focalization: the use of evaluative adjectives and the narrator of the Iliad. CODEX - Revista De Estudos Clássicos, 6(2), 17–39. https://doi.org/10.25187/codex.v6i2.19284

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 2 (2018)

Section

Articles

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