Homeric Voices Discourse, Memory, Gender [Hardcover]

Homeric Voicesis a study, from a compositional point of view, of the substantial speeches and exchanges of speech that Homer depicts in his songs. Drawing on research in sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and cognitive psychology, Elizabeth Minchin considers the words that Homer attributes to his characters from two perspectives, as cognitive and as social phenomena. She asks how the poet worked with memory to generate the speech forms that he represents; and how Homeric speech constructs and reveals the social hierarchies that are bound up with age, status, and gender--with particular interest in gender--in the world of the poems.

I. Discourse and memory
1. Speech acts in Homer: the rebuke as a case-study
2. On declining an invitation: context, form, and function
3. Questions in the Odyssey: rhythm and regularity
4. Hysteron proton in questions and answers
5. Verbal behaviour in its social context: three question strategies in the Odyssey
II. Discourse and gender
6. Linguistic choices in Homer: rebukes and protests
7. Competitive and co-operative strategies I: information questions
8. Competitive and co-operative strategies II: directives
9. Competitive and co-operative strategies III: interruptions
10. Storytelling and gender

Elizabeth Minchin is Reader in the School of Language Studies, Australian National University.