1.Previous
3.Next

with the epic. The essential difference lies in what Emerson, following Lukacs, refers to as "the gap between self and society". The epic expresses a unity of worldview that does not permit the development of an alienated interiority of the soul, or indeed any form of behaviour, interpretation or language that is at variance with it. The epic takes place in an absolute past and speaks in an absolute language; the novel expresses the non-coincidence between hero and environment, and in doing so becomes an

1.Previous
3.Next