About
Narratives with features commonly regarded as epic often overlap with other generic labels, such as sacred history, chronicle, saga, legend, romance, myth, folklore, and the novel. This website features cherished stories from across the globe that relate memorable deeds by heroic characters whose actions have significant consequences for themselves and their larger communities.
I created World Epics in 2019 through the Center for Teaching and Learning at Columbia University. The website currently contains separate webpages on almost ninety epic narratives (or narrative traditions), each with concise introductions written by experts in the field, accompanied by suggested additional resources, from essential bibliography to images, performances, lectures, and relevant websites. Please contact me by email
if (1) you are interested in supplying a brief (ca. 1,000 word) introduction to an epic that is not yet included on the site; (2) you can suggest links to websites, videos of performances, online artwork, podcasts, lectures, etc., related to epic narratives; (3) you are willing to share your syllabi, discussion questions, or other teaching resources on the site; (4) you have news, upcoming events, CFPs, or publications to post on the site’s home page; (5) you would like to submit a blog for publication on the site; or 6) you have feedback and suggestions for improving the site.
Contributors are gratefully acknowledged below:
In the Spotlight
Contributors
Atefeh Akbari, Barnard College
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Marianne Ailes, University of Bristol (England) ![]()
Sarah M. Anderson, Princeton University
Claudia Antonini, Columbia University
Bernard Arps, Leiden University (Netherlands)
Francesco Marco Aresu, University of Pennsylvania ![]()
Poupak Azimpour Tabrizi, University of Tehran (Iran)
Steve J. Baker, Columbia University
Brenda Beck, University of Toronto (Canada) ![]()
Dan Ben-Amos, University of Pennsylvania
Philip E. Bennett, University of Edinburgh (Scotland)
Alison Beringer, Montclair State University ![]()
Brunhilde Biebuyck, Reid Hall, Columbia University (France)
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Saglar Bougdaeva, College of Staten Island – City University of New York
Troy Camplin, independent scholar
Benson Cheung
Danny M.C. Ching, Columbia University.
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Joel Christensen, Brandeis University
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Bradford Clark, Bowling Green State University
Albrecht Classen, The University of Arizona
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Matthew Cohen, University of Connecticut
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Tylar Ann Colleluori, Columbia University ![]()
Fabrice Contri, Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon (France)
Jesús Ricardo Córdoba Perozo, Università di Napoli (Italy)
Robert Crossley, University of Massachusetts Boston
Alex Cuadrado, Bowdoin College
Olga M. Davidson, Boston University
Barlow Der Mugrdechian, California State University, Fresno
Ivana Djordjević, Concordia University (Canada) ![]()
Thomas A. DuBois, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Casey Dué, University of Houston
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Angelica Duran, Purdue University
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John Fadden, Six Nations Indian Museum ![]()
Jennifer Fellows, independent scholar (England) ![]()
Esther Fernández, Rice University ![]()
Paul Firbas, Stony Brook University
Yelena P. Francis, Columbia College, MO ![]()
Camille Fritsch, Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon (France)
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Alessandro Giammei, Bryn Mawr College
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George G. Grabowicz, Harvard University
Thomas A. Hale, Pennsylvania State University
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Zachary Hamby, Ava High School, MO
Bruce Johansen, University of Nebraska at Omaha ![]()
John Wm. Johnson, Indiana University
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Adeline Johns-Putra, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (China)
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Demetrios Stefanos Kavadas, Columbia University ![]()
Alison Keith, University of Toronto (Canada)
Sharon Kinoshita, University of California, Santa Cruz
Roman Koropeckyj, University of California, Los Angeles
Carolina López-Ruiz, University of Chicago Divinity School
Joey McMullen, Indiana University
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Gianmarco Mancuso, Columbia University ![]()
Raul Marrero-Fente, University of Minnesota
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Christine Marrewa-Karwoski, Columbia University
Lipton Matthews (Jamaica)
José Antonio Mazzotti, Tufts University ![]()
Joseph L. Mbele, St. Olaf College
Roberta Micallef, Boston University
Leslie Zarker Morgan, Loyola University Maryland
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Mario Murgia, Autonomous University of Mexico (Mexico) ![]()
Thomas Mussio, Iona University
Gregory Nagy, Harvard University
Leonard Neidorf, Nanjing University (China)
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Katherine Oswald, University of Notre Dame ![]()
Elizabeth Oyler, University of Pittsburgh ![]()
Emrah Pelvanoğlu, Yeditepe University (Turkey)
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Tom Phillips, University of Manchester (England)
James Plumtree, American University of Central Asia (Kyrgyz Republic)
Maria Predelli, McGill University (Canada)
Aliaksandra Razor, University of California, Los Angeles
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Joseph D. Reed, Brown University
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Joshua S. Reid, East Tennessee State University
Nicole Revel, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France) ![]()
Dwight F. Reynolds, University of California at Santa Barbara
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Moss Roberts, New York University
Paula Richman, Oberlin College
Charles S. Ross, Purdue University
Sherry Roush, Penn State University
Lily Saint, Wesleyan University
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Arshia Sattar, independent scholar (India)
Martin Simonson, University of the Basque Country (Spain)
Bjørn Okholm Skaarup (Denmark) ![]()
Nancy Staub, Center for Puppetry Arts Museum, Atlanta, Georgia ![]()
Luke Sunderland, Durham University (England) ![]()
Gizachew Tiruneh, University of Central Arkansas
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Pasquale Toscano, Vassar College
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Buffy Turner, Bilkent University (Turkey)
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Frederick Turner, University of Texas at Dallas
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Victoria Turner, University of St Andrews (Scotland)
David Wallace, University of Pennsylvania
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Gareth Williams, Columbia University
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Martin White, founder of African Poems (England)
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Mariam Zia, Lahore School of Economics (Pakistan) ![]()
This website arose from a project entitled “World Epics in Puppet Theater: Italy, India, Iran, Japan,” co-sponsored by the Humanities War and Peace Initiative, through the Division of Humanities in the Arts and Sciences at Columbia University. This initiative “fosters the study of war and peace from the perspective of scholars in the Humanities, in conversation with colleagues from around Columbia and the world […] with an ultimate goal of perpetuating a more peaceful world.” I would like to thank M. Aurora Rodriguez Collado (Center for Teaching and Learning) for her creative design and technical support and Tylar Colleluori (Department of Italian) for her assistance with locating resources.
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