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 am especially eager to include lesser-known epic narratives from around the world that are at least partly available in English translation. 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; or 5) you have feedback and suggestions for improving the site.
Contributors are gratefully acknowledged below:
In the Spotlight
Contributors
Atefeh Akbari, Barnard College
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)
Troy Camplin, independent scholar
Benson Cheung
Joel Christensen, Brandeis University
Bradford Clark, Bowling Green State University
Albrecht Classen, The University of Arizona
Matthew Cohen, University of Connecticut
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, Columbia University
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
Angelica Duran, Purdue University
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)
Alessandro Giammei, Bryn Mawr College
George G. Grabowicz, Harvard University
Thomas A. Hale, Pennsylvania State University
Zachary Hamby, Ava High School, MO
Bruce Johansen, University of Nebraska at Omaha
John Wm. Johnson, Indiana University
Adeline Johns-Putra, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (China)
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
Raul Marrero-Fente, University of Minnesota
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
Mario Murgia, Autonomous University of Mexico (Mexico)
Thomas Mussio, Iona University
Gregory Nagy, Harvard University
Leonard Neidorf, Nanjing University (China)
Katherine Oswald, University of Notre Dame
Elizabeth Oyler, University of Pittsburgh
Emrah Pelvanoğlu, Yeditepe University (Turkey)
Tom Phillips, University of Manchester (England)
Maria Predelli, McGill University (Canada)
Aliaksandra Razor, University of California, Los Angeles
Joseph D. Reed, Brown University
Joshua S. Reid, East Tennessee State University
Dwight F. Reynolds, University of California at Santa Barbara
Moss Roberts, New York University
Paula Richman, Oberlin College
Charles S. Ross, Purdue University
Lily Saint, Wesleyan University
Arshia Sattar, independent scholar (India)
Martin Simonson, University of the Basque Country (Spain)
Nancy Staub, Center for Puppetry Arts Museum, Atlanta, Georgia
Luke Sunderland, Durham University (England)
Gizachew Tiruneh, University of Central Arkansas
Buffy Turner, Bilkent University (Turkey)
Frederick Turner, University of Texas at Dallas
Victoria Turner, University of St Andrews (Scotland)
David Wallace, University of Pennsylvania
Gareth Williams, Columbia University
Martin White, founder of African Poems (England)
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.
How To Use This Site
Search By Location
Under construction.
Search By Time Period
Under construction.
Consult Resources By Epic
Under construction.
Discover Events
Under construction.
Discover Events
Under construction.
Read News
Under construction.
Explore Featured Resources
Under construction.