Translation and transformation: Alice Oswald's excavation of the Iliad

Elizabeth Minchin*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    4 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Alice Oswald's, Memorial, an 'excavation' of the Iliad, is a response to that ancient account of the grief and pain that is inevitably the outcome of war. Oswald herself describes the poem as an 'oral cemetery'. Borrowing some of the most conspicuous of Homer's traditional epic elements - his lists, biographies, and similes - and blending paraphrase and translation, Oswald has re-worked this early epic, creating a poem for today's world. This paper offers a close reading of Memorial, its themes and its composition, through the lens of Homer.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)202-222
    Number of pages21
    JournalClassical Receptions Journal
    Volume7
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2015

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