叙事詩は古代から続く普遍的な芸術表現です。語り部たちは不朽の名声を勝ち得た英雄たちの壮大な人生や苦しみを語り継いできました。本書では西洋の主な叙事詩を、アジア、アフリカ、近東の英雄詩と比較することで、叙事詩文学の共通点、叙事詩人の役割、他の物語形式との違いなどを浮き彫りにします。その中で、共同体、犠牲、死など、人間にとっての重要な側面に特別な力と緊迫感で向き合っているのが叙事詩であると指摘します。『ギルガメシュ叙事詩』からデレック・ウォルコットの『オメロス』まで幅広く取り上げ、人類史に刻まれた偉大な文学を通して、叙事詩がなぜ私たちの想像力をこれほどまでに支配するのかを問いかけます。
 

• Introduces epics, some of the world's great literary works, exploring the themes and problems they confront
• Takes a comparative and thematic approach to epic literature
• Employs fresh interdisciplinary research in fields such as orality and literacy, mythology and folklore, genre theory, gender studies, and comparative literature

    
The epic is an ancient and universal form of artistic expression. Storytellers around the globe have long told of heroes who are touched by greatness and win lasting fame. These sprawling heroic tales convey the grandeur and pain of human life. They have been preserved for millennia in Sumerian clay tablets, Egyptian papyrus rolls, fragmentary manuscripts salvaged from European monasteries, oral traditions in Africa and Central Asia, and contemporary poetry and film.
    
In this Very Short Introduction, Anthony Welch places the Western epic canon alongside traditional heroic poetry from Asia, Africa, and the Near East. Tracing shared themes and practices that unite the world's epic literature, the author asks what roles epic poets serve in society and how do they differ from other narrative forms. Welch argues that the epic confronts key aspects of the human condition - heroism, community, sacrifice, death - with special force and urgency. Ranging widely from Gilgamesh to Derek Walcott's Omeros, this book acquaints readers with some of the world's greatest literary works and asks why the epic holds such power over our imaginations.