Casey Tran Genre Analysis

Rather than define genre as the types of music or books you see in a library, I'd like to describe genres in literacy similarly to how De itt does in her article, as a !te"t#type de eloped through repeated use in rhetorical situations$! This definition allows specific te"ts to be labeled and differentiated between such as what constitutes a te"t to be an epic poem or non epic poem$ %a ing epic poems be described as a genre allows the discourse community on mythologies and ancient literature to be able to create an identity for themsel es and study the impact on culture and use of these te"ts in rhetoric situations$ &pic poems stand out from other stories in content, history, length, and structure for the most part$ 'any epics that are currently well known, such as a few of %omer's works like the Iliad and the (dyssey in Greek culture, and the 'ahabharata in Indian and %indu culture, are famous for their e"tremely long length and impactful content related to culture and life$ &ach of these epics tell great tales that span o er the length of many years and many locations, in turn pro iding a great amount of information on each indi idual culture and pro iding an idea of the impact the poem had on the culture$ Another important property of epic poems are the history of each one$ &ach poems pre iously listed is said to come from early times, around )th to *th centuries +C&$ 'any poems, including these, are also said to ha e started out being passed down through oral traditions which can mean se eral things$ Considering how early these poems were created and the method they were passed down in, there is no doubt that they ha e had an impact and played a part in shaping their respecti e cultures$ ,or e"ample, the 'ahabharata contains a large amount

of philosophical material, and discusses !goals of life! throughout the te"t, while %omer's works gi e a iew of the culture and religion of the many places isited by -lysses$ Although it might be hard to imagine te"ts like these ha ing such a cultural impact, an easy comparison in our culture would be the impact the +ible had on culture and religion here in the -nited .tates$ & en though these te"ts are e"tremely old, /ust like the +ible, they are actually surprisingly simple to gain access to$ There are many archi es online containing the poems, including translated and non#translated works$ The structure of an epic poem is also uni0ue and noticeably different from non#epic poems$ &ach poems starts out and is told from the perspecti e of another$ In Greek tales, a muse is called upon to recite the poem, while the 'ahabharata begins with a sage, .auti, reciting a story to a group of sages$ As mentioned before, the poems' settings includes many places, co ering nation wide tra els, or e en e"panding to the world and uni erse$ Gods and important peoples are often introduced with the proper title upon meeting, such as when %omer's works introduce %elios as !%elios the .un God!, rather than /ust a name, also known as the use of epithets$ 1oems will also contain long lists of certain things, such as names, whereas in non epics, this wouldn't be as important$ These properties all follow the definition of genre as stated abo e, being properties de eloped through repeated use in rhetorical situations, and are defining characteristics in each poem$ &ach structural property helps the epic poem get across its purpose in an effecti e way for that particular poem$ Content is another big part of epic poems that separates them as a genre$ +ecause each poem dates to an e"tremely long time ago, and the content of each poem spreads through a great length of time and place, it is impossible to pro ide sources or e idence for said poems$ It could be argued that the poems were not created on real stories, and only created as a tale to teach others

alues$ There is definitely a !lost in translation! effect for some meaning of the poems, but a good amount of purpose is told through the story itself$ The similarity in content and age also helps in identifying te"ts as epic poems or not$ Along with the influence on past cultures, epic poems also ha e had an impact on modern communities$ The most notable contribution to modern communities is probably the understanding of past culture through the epithets and narrations$ .ince these poems contain history and past e ents, they become important the modern culture to re eal cultural and religous procedures and standings between arious cultures that were contained in the story$ ,or e"ample, it can help modern communities dealing with mythology in the understand of worship of Greek gods, and the standings between city#states as told through the tales of -lysses$ All in all, each of the properties that separates an epic poem from a non epic poem allows the discourse communities to recogni2e epic poems as a genre that leads to a greater understanding of its place of origin$ Through studying epic poems, the discourse community can recogni2e the impact each poem had on culture and similarly take that knowledge and apply it somehow in their own or others li es$

3orks Cited

De itt, Amy4 +awarshi, Anis4 Reiff, 'ary$ !'ateriality and Genre in the .tudy of Discourse Communities$! Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities. p$ 567#55)$ 1D,$

%omer$ The Iliad$ Trans$ Robert ,agles$ 89: 1enguin +ooks, 7**;$ 1rint$

%omer$ The Odyssey. Trans$ Robert ,agles$ 89: <iking, 7**=$ 1rint$

The 'ahabharata >?rd c$ +C&@$ Encyclopedia of Disability. &d Gary A$ Albrecht$ <ol$ 6 Thousand (aks, Ca: .AG& 1ublications, Inc$, B;;=$