 previous article in this issue | next article in this issue  |
Preview first page |
Document Details : Title: The Illusion of Objectivity Subtitle: A.T. Hatto on «The Story of Sohrāb» and the Hildebrandslied Author(s): CLINTON, Jerome W. Journal: Persica Volume: 17 Date: 2001 Pages: 27-33 DOI: 10.2143/PERS.17.0.497 Abstract : In an article published in 1980 A. T. Hatto compares four versions of a story in which, as he puts it, “a ‘good’ father slays a ‘good’ son in battle” — the Hildebrandslied in Germanic, Cú Chulain in Gaelic, Il’ya i Sokol’nik in Russian, and “Sohrāb” in Persian. He begins by saying that these four are the only versions of this narrative pattern in Indo-European languages, but that he has no interest in finding a common origin for them, and discounts the possibility of doing so. His wish is, rather, to undertake a comparative examination of what he calls their “dynamics,” by which he means the logic of their narrative development. He promises “no disturbingly new results,” as a result of this exercise. “The only hoped for gain is a greater tidiness and an enhanced appreciation of the individual features of the four versions.” |
|
