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A Narratological Commentary on the Odyssey by Irene J.F. de Jong (review) - Mouseion: Journal of the Classical Association of Canada
- Classical Association of Canada
- Volume 5, Number 1, 2005, XLIX—Series III
- pp. 75-77
- 10.1353/mou.2005.0017
- Review
- Additional Information
BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS IRENE J.F. DE JONG. A Narratological Commentary on the Odyssey. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. xix + 627. US $110.00 (cloth), $40.00 (paper). ISBN 0-52146478 -1 (cloth), 0-521-46844-2. This book contains a Preface (vii-x). a Glossary (xi-xix). a running Commentary divided into 24 chapters equal to the number of the Books (3-586). Appendices A-F (587-598). a Bibliography (599-621). an Index of Greek Words (622-623). and an Index of Subjects (624-627). Its aim is to provide a narratological commentary that "covers the whole text. not only the problematic parts. deals exclusively with its narrative aspects. and includes a discussion of the macro-textual and meso-textual levels" (viD, The task is ambitious. and the author. who has dealt with the technique of narration in a previous book. Narrators and Focalizers: The Presentation of the Story in the Iliad (1987). is aware of the difficulties involved in its fulfillment. There is a lot of useful information gathered here. presented in a lucid style. with plentiful bibliography to back it. but the well-informed reader of Homer expects more. The "narrative units." which form the basis for the author's analysis. are hard to define (the Books are not treated as narrative units), but the author discusses speeches. type-scenes. themes. motifs, as well as narrators and narratees . characterization. description. plot-development, structure, focalization , etc., and this approach entails a great deal of repetition. Modern concepts of narratology may be helpful. and the author draws on them (though she fails to consider relevant studies such as P. Rubie, The Elements of Storytelling [New York 1996] 95ff. and W. Nobie, Conflict , Action & Suspense [Ohio 1994] 15Iff.), but Aristotle's views on Horner's narrative art are still valid, and yet his Poetics is nowhere lnentioned. A narrative unit, if not actually the narrative unit, is the episode (cf. O. Tsagarakis, "Aristotle Poetics 145Ia24-30," Phoenix 22 [1968] 159ff.), and the author occasionally uses the term