Describe what an epic as a genre is

Mary scholars have defined the Epic as long narrative poem or story that deals with a hero
or heroes. The success of the hero is viewed as the success of the nation and his failures as
the failure of the nation. The history of the hero is seen as the history of his people. The
question of the length of the poem or story has been debated a lot of scholars. The epic
like other forms of oral literature is a performance. The epic poet can control the length of
an Epic. He can decide to tell the same story in one hour or the audience he has can
determine the length of the performance depending on their interest, their participation, or
even the poet’s attribute (regards something towards them).

We cannot define length in oral literature in terms of these lines because this comes with
writing and whether the poets used verse or prose is also debatable.

Other scholars have defined an epic as a poem in verse and this again is problematic
because as we said earlier verse and prose came with writing. An epic could be sung,
recited, narrated. Therefore, it is difficult to separate verse from prose also, it is difficult to define what is poetic or not poetic in performance. Because even in ordinary speech, one can get imagery and symbolism.

Joseph Mbele in his Thesis “The hero in the African Epic” defines epic as a work that
concerns itself with a national past, with a theme or items of national significance and
develops a concept of heroism and a hero.

Okpwewho in his book The African Epic defines epic as an oral art form which is:
Fundamentally a song about the fantastic deeds of a man or men, endowed with
something more than human might and operating on something more than human world.
It is narrated or performed to the background of music by (usually) an unlettered singer
working alone or with some help from a group of accompaniments.

NB: an epic concerns itself with
(i) a national past
(ii) Deals with themes of national significance
(iii) Develops a concept of heroism and a hero
(iv) Is about the fantastic deeds of a man or men who are powerful
(v) Performance is central to any discussion of the epic
(vi) Is a more complex reality than its verbal manifestations
Ie. an oral art, it is specific form of myth that expresses certain beliefs
NB: the concept epic is based on the study of European texts but scholars generally
agree that the African epic shares certain qualities with the European epic.

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Titany answered the question on November 11, 2021 at 06:08