Is It Necessary to (Re)read Aristotle’s Poetics to Define the Epic Genre?
Résumé
This chapter deals with the impact of ancient and Byzantine rereadings of a passage from Aristotle’s Poetics (1447a28-1447b18). It focuses on the definition of epic, from Antiquity to the present time. The passage was indeed read from Antiquity onwards as a generic taxonomy, distinguishing between epopoioi and ‘true’ poets of a nameless genre. The reinterpretations eventually led to the transformation of the text of one manuscript, by interpolating the term epopoiia and deleting the term anōnymos. The projections made on this passage then evolved. From the Renaissance onwards, the text became the basis for questioning the possibility of composing an epic in prose. Moreover, the word epopoiia, a technical term used by Aristotle to allude to the epic genre, which was at the heart of the debates, was transcribed into neo-Latin. In the early 17th century, it was introduced in French under the form of the learned loan “épopée”. Thus, in French theoretical works, a new rhetoric appeared, which justified the personal definition that was given to the epic genre and the corpus of works considered as part of the genre. It hinged on three elements: the mention of the word “épopée”, the explanation of its etymology, and the reference to the authority of Aristotle. This rhetoric still persists today in many French academic works.