Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
The standard literary definition of an "epic" is a long work, with a hero as its protagonist, which narrates a series of achievements or events in an "elevated" style, ie not using normal everyday language.
The archetypal epic would be something like Homer's "Odyssey".
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Contemporary "epics" are a wee bit more accessible.
The term in modern usage tends to be attached to big sprawling narratives where the scope goes well beyond the norm for the genre.
In movies, something like the old Cecil B. DeMille "cast of thousands" three-plus hour movies or Eisenstein's ALEXANDER NEVSKY.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Nevsky_(film)
In TV, some of the American miniseries of the 80's and early 90's like NORTH AND SOUTH and WAR AND REMEMBRANCE fit the model. Or, if you treat them as single narratives, BABYLON 5 and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA v2.
In SF; DUNE (vol 1), LENSMEN, THE AMBER CHRONICLES, and WORLD OF TIERS fit the mold, though by the practices of the day the latter two were broken into multiple volumes, much like LORD OF THE RINGS. THE MOTE IN GODS EYE and FOOTFALL are also arguably epics.
There is also an entire subgenre of fantasy that aspires to the epic label. Some with more success than others.
