Category Archives: epic

Octopus for Christmas

December 25, 2013 No, not salmon, that eminently respectable candidate for a fishetarian dinner.  Octopus instead, still exotic and dubious-looking in this part of the world, but a common food staple in Japan and throughout the Mediterranean: in Spain, Portugal, … Continue reading

Posted in Animals, epic, Food in literature, Global South, oceans, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ilium, Iowa City: Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five

October 23, 2013 For someone interested in the twentieth-century epic, Slaughterhouse Five is a no-brainer.  How else would one call a story set in Ilium, talking about war, about death and the counterfactual? But did I ever stop to think about … Continue reading

Posted in Boostores, Cities, Climate change, Contemporary novel, Environmentalism, epic, public universities, Science fiction, Twentieth century literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Jazz in Australia: Yusef Komunyakaa, Charlie Parker

May 22, 2012 I’m heading there later today, so I’ve been doing a bit of homework. Komunyakaa, of course: it’s so strange that I should be talking about his play adaptation of Gilgamesh at the University of Sydney, when there … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Arts communities, Australia, collaboration, Comparative literature, contemporary poetry, Cuneiform, Educational institutions, epic, Ethnicity, Global South, Handwritten script, lyric, Media, Mesopotamia, Middle East, Music, Near Eastern poetry, peripheral networks, planet, print medium, Remediation, twentieth century art | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Two Toledos

April 25, 2012 I’m on my way to Toledo, I told people.  Ohio, not Spain, I added.  Then I found out that the two are in fact sister cities. The association began in the 1920s when University of Toledo President, … Continue reading

Posted in Arabic, architecture, Classics, Educational institutions, epic, Islam, Midwest, mixed races, Spanish, Translation, Universities, world literature, World religions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 20 Comments

Iraq in Poetry: Brian Turner

April 4, 2012 Teaching his poetry was easy. There was never any doubt in my mind that it belonged in the course – along with Whitman on the Civil War; John Hersey on Hiroshima; Ha Jin on Korea; Michael Herr … Continue reading

Posted in Arabic, Classics, collaboration, Contemporary novel, contemporary poetry, Cuneiform, Educational institutions, epic, Handwritten script, Islam, lyric, Media, Mesopotamia, Middle East, Near Eastern poetry, Translation, Twentieth century literature, Universities, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Yusef Komunyakaa and Chad Gracia, Gilgamesh

February 22, 2012 I’ve never given a talk at UCLA.  Caltech, yes, in nearby Pasadena; also the Huntington Library.   But never at the famed Royce Hall, 405 Hilgard Avenue. So I’m a bit anxious about tomorrow: a graduate student … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Classics, collaboration, Comparative literature, contemporary poetry, Cuneiform, Dance, epic, Handwritten script, Mesopotamia, Near Eastern poetry, Remediation, Theater, Translation, Visual arts, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 67 Comments

Charles Olson: Call Me Ishmael

January 25, 2012 In the early 1930s, while writing his Master’s thesis on Melville, Charles Olson began tracking down the books once owned by Melville, some with significant marginalia.  Melville’s widow had sold almost 500 of these books to a … Continue reading

Posted in epic, Experimental poetry, Handwritten script, Media, Nineteenth-century literature, Renaissance literature, Twentieth century literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Frank Stella re-mediates Moby-Dick

December 28, 2011 The numbers speak for themselves.   Begun in 1985, the Moby-Dick series is still ongoing, with one or more artworks corresponding to each of the 135 chapter titles, over 300 of them at this point.  They are mostly … Continue reading

Posted in abstract expressionism, Chinese art, epic, Japanese art, Near Eastern poetry, Nineteenth-century literature, print medium, Remediation, twentieth century art, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 168 Comments

Collaboration with Chance

December 21 On our Facebook page, Edgar Garcia posted a link to Jackson Mac Low’s Words nd Ends from Ez. Ezra Pound, of course.  The two poets used to be friends, but they were no longer close when Mac Low … Continue reading

Posted in epic, Experimental poetry, Music, Nineteenth-century literature, print medium, Remediation, Rock music, Twentieth century literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Melville in the Dominican Republic

December 14, 2011 As far I know, he never set foot there.   But then a physical journey is not always necessary. Junot Diaz is not shy about naming names — The Brief Wondrous Life of  Oscar Wao is almost … Continue reading

Posted in epic, Global South, Nineteenth-century literature, Spanglish, Translation, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , | 11 Comments