Narratology and Linguistics: An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Homeric Speech Representation

This paper examines the different forms of speech representation in the Iliad and the Odyssey using both linguistics and narratological theory. Heretofore, narratologists working on Homeric poetry have paid little attention to non-direct modes of speech representation, which this paper argues can best be understood as complementary to direct speech with their own distinct functions in the overall structure of the poems. The linguistic speech act type of a given speech plays a prominent role in how that speech is represented. We understand both non-direct speech and direct speech more fully if we explain how these techniques work alongside one another. Moreover, we will see that the Iliad and the Odyssey share a broadly consistent approach to speech representation, but each poem uses the speech representational spectrum to depict different types of speech.