Robbe-Grillet and Hesiod: Catalogue as anti-epic

Abstract

Antiepic can be understood in the sense of an epic tradition that not only opposes itself, from the beginning on, to narrative epic (Hesiods Muses attacking Homer), but also has an impact on both our own - modern - literature and the way we conceive what epic is. On one hand, the catalogic tradition, once itself considered a poetry of truth, has become a non-fiction-tradition that made of literature the deviation of normality. On the other hand, the postmodern antiepic of Burroughs and Robbe-Grillet seem to claim Hesiod as thei fore-father.