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Journal of qur'anic studies, 2014-02, Vol.16 (1), p.58-92
Ort / Verlag
UK: Edinburgh University Press
Erscheinungsjahr
2014
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
Edinburgh University Press
Beschreibungen/Notizen
While the textual flow of the Qur'an is notoriously challenging and complex, it is also the case that in the process of reading or listening the centre of narrative gravity is never lost. This powerful focus may be termed the epic journey, a struggle from a state of barbarousness to one of civilisation, from ignorance to enlightenment. The hero of this 'epic' is, of course, the prophet or messenger, for whom history, as told in the Qur'an, provides many examples. In this paper we will examine basic, sometimes disputed, features of the epic as they may be recognised in a series of such works (for example,
The Odyssey
, 'Gilgamesh',
The Shah-nameh
,
The Divine Comedy
, and
Paradise Lost
). Such reflection is useful for scholarship in a world where the Qur'an is so obviously a part of the shared, if not always recognised, literary heritage of humanity. Among the subsidiary themes to be tested against the notion of 'epic' are: humanity, community, apocalypse, and the path or road. In addition to such thematic questions, other compositional and stylistic features of the epic will be studied: orality, rhetoric, figure, metonymy, metre, rhyme, and voice. Finally, the question of audience and performance will be broached to further delineate similarities and differences amongst various theories of the epic, as they can or cannot be applied to the Qur'an.