| Epic Traditions in the Contemporary World |
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
 | INTRODUCTION |
 | SECTION ONE— ON THE MARGINS OF THE SCRIBAL: FROM ORAL EPIC TO TEXT |
| 1— Epic as Genre |
| 2— Performing Interpretation: Early Allegorical Exegesis of Homer |
| 3— The Arabic Epic Poet as Outcast, Trickster, and Con Man |
| 4— Epic, Gender, and Nationalism: The Development of Nineteenth-Century Balkan Literature |
| SECTION TWO— EPIC AND AUTHORITY |
| 5— Metamorphosis, Metaphor, and Allegory in Latin Epic |
| 6— Tasso's Trees: Epic and Local Culture |
| 7— Appropriating the Epic: Gender, Caste, and Regional Identity in Middle India |
| SECTION THREE— THE BOUNDARIES OF EPIC PERFORMANCE |
| 8— Problematic Performances: Overlapping Genres and Levels of Participation in Arabic Oral Epic-Singing |
| 9— Worshiping Epic Villains: A Kaurava Cult in the Central Himalayas |
| SECTION FOUR— EPIC AND LAMENT |
| 10— The Natural Tears of Epic |
| 11— The Poetics of Loss in Greek Epic |
| 12— The Role of Lament in the Growth and Eclipse of Roman Epic |
| SECTION FIVE— EPIC AND PEDAGOGY |
| 13— Epics and the Politics of the Origin Tale: Virgil, Ovid, Spenser, and Native American Aetiology |
| 14— Walcott's Omeros : The Classical Epic in a Postmodern World |
| Notes |
| • | INTRODUCTION |
| • | 1— Epic as Genre |
| • | 2— Performing Interpretation: Early Allegorical Exegesis of Homer |
| • | 3— The Arabic Epic Poet as Outcast, Trickster, and Con Man |
| • | 4— Epic, Gender, and Nationalism: The Development of Nineteenth-Century Balkan Literature |
| • | 5— Metamorphosis, Metaphor, and Allegory in Latin Epic |
| • | 6— Tasso's Trees: Epic and Local Culture |
| • | 7— Appropriating the Epic: Gender, Caste, and Regional Identity in Middle India |
| • | 8— Problematic Performances: Overlapping Genres and Levels of Participation in Arabic Oral Epic-Singing |
| • | 9— Worshiping Epic Villains: A Kaurava Cult in the Central Himalayas1 |
| • | 10— The Natural Tears of Epic |
| • | 11— The Poetics of Loss in Greek Epic |
| • | 12— The Role of Lament in the Growth and Eclipse of Roman Epic |
| • | 13— Epics and the Politics of the Origin Tale: Virgil, Ovid, Spenser, and Native American Aetiology |
| • | 14— Walcott's Omeros : The Classical Epic in a Postmodern World |
| CONTRIBUTORS |
| INDEX |