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Document Details : Title: Interactional Particles and Narrative Voices in Apollonius and Homer Author(s): CUYPERS, Martijn Journal: Caeculus Volume: 6 Date: 2005 Pages: 35-69 DOI: 10.2143/CAE.6.0.2004666 Abstract : Apollonius of Rhodes is in many ways a typical epic narrator. He relates a story about the remote past, at length, in hexameter verse; he is omniscient, omnipresent, and anonymous; he uses virtually every narrative technique found in the Iliadand Odyssey. Yet on closer inspection, the Argonautica’s narrative voice differs from that of the Homeric epics in important ways. Notably, whereas ‘Homer’ operates largely in the background, Apollonius directs his narrative in an overt and self-conscious manner, and engages in a pervasive and variegated dialogue with his narratees, his sources, the Muses, and other divinities. In this paper I will explore this crucial difference from a linguistic perspective. Starting from a survey of particle usage in the Iliad, Odyssey, and Argonautica which distinguishes between words spoken by the narrator (‘narrator-text’) and by characters (‘character-text’), I will analyze how the micro-level of the text reflects the covertness and ‘monophonicity’ of Homer and the overtness and ‘diaphonicity’ of Apollonius. |
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