Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Openings: Narrative Beginnings from the Epic to the Novel

Openings: Narrative Beginnings from the Epic to the Novel

Nuttall, A. D.

Hardcover

General ReferenceLinguistics

ISBN10: 0198117418
ISBN13: 9780198117414
Publisher: Clarendon Press
Published: May 14 1992
Pages: 266
Weight: 1.08
Height: 0.75 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
What is the difference between a natural beginning and the beginning of a story? Some deny that there are any beginnings in nature, except perhaps for the origin of the universe itself, suggesting that elsewhere there is only a continuum of events, into which beginnings are variously read by different societies. This book argues that history is full of real beginnings but that poets and novelists are indeed free to begin their stories wherever they choose. The ancient poet Homer laid down a rule for his successors when he began his epic by plunging in media res, into the midst of things. Later writers, however, persistently play off the natural beginning: Genesis or the birth of a child. Meanwhile, the inspiring Muse of epic gives way to the poet's ego, dies, revives, and dies again.

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