This volume results from a carefully managed project and is a most welcome contribution to teaching literature in the (English-language) college classroom. Because epics usually deal with norms, values, politics, and sanctions, and always tell about actions and their consequences, Teaching World Epics may be most useful for classes in literature, history, folklore, anthropology, and area studies. In five thematic parts—each four to seven chapters—this volume covers “world epics,” from the very ancient (Gilgamesh, Mahabharata, and The Iliad) to the modern (Finland's Kalevala and Niger's Askia Mohammed), and from single-authored literary works (Virgil's Aeneid and Milton's Paradise Lost) to organically developing oral performances (the Central African Mwindo epic). The section “World Epics in Various Contexts” complements these chapters with reports on epics in classroom education. The final part, labeled “Resources,” assembles the works already cited in the previous chapters. Jo Ann Cavallo modestly writes that no survey can be complete—which is true, by definition—but she deserves praise for organizing a fine, representative collection of essays, each written by a different expert.These experts selected the parts of “their” epic that have worked well in the classroom and also indicated which editions (in English) are available in paperback (cheap) or online (for free). In addition, they provided pedagogical suggestions, including assignments, as well as information about other resources (films, apps, novels, etc.). Although a few experts have contributed what I feel is (for this project) too detailed an analysis of their favorite epic, the overall results are very satisfactory, particularly in the volume's clear focus on teaching.Anyone planning to teach one particular epic in the classroom should certainly read the entire volume, as it offers a plethora of teaching suggestions. For instance, I would love to apply the discussion on which translation to use (raised by Nathan Henne on Popol Wuj) to my own teachings of the Sunjata epic or even in teaching issues of intercultural communication.The volume primarily addresses those who teach literature in the classroom, but I also discern two levels of analysis in the individual chapters: one literary level that focuses on the characters and the development of the story line, and one historical level that focuses on the audience's reception and the epic's societal function. I wonder whether it works to explicitly make this analytical difference academically relevant in the classroom. Maybe Cavallo is wiser when she writes that “instructors may encourage students to reflect on their own working definitions of the genre when examining the configuration of particular epics” (p. 3).Cavallo's introduction is well-written, but rather dense. Personally, I would have welcomed a few more pages on the historical development of the genre, from the normative hegemony of the European perspective to a polycentric one that includes both written and oral works. The changes in the definition of epic represent major paradigmatic and epistemological transformations that global society has gone through in the past 70 years, which may argue for teaching world epics in today's classrooms. A short reflection on this development could have helped numerous teachers who know epic only through Homer and Virgil, and even more teachers who are not acquainted with the characteristics of oral compositions.Regarding the latter, I agree with Emrah Pelvanoğlu that Walter Ong's list of “psychodynamics of orality” is of great use in the classroom (pp. 126–8). From personal experience, I know that this list teaches students not only how to appreciate an oral epic, but also to “discover” and to understand dimensions of illiteracy around them, as in communication with people lacking formal education. Although slightly critical, this final observation acknowledges simultaneously the great potential of Teaching World Epics.
Jan Jansen (Thu,) studied this question.