Epic Liminal Spaces: Dreams, Similes, and the Poetics of Vividness in Gilgamesh and Homer
Date of Award
Spring 2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Classics
First Advisor
Bakker, Egbert
Abstract
This dissertation uses the theoretical framework of narratological studies to compare the Homeric epics with the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh. Part One focuses on dreams and their interpretation in the respective epics. In Chapter One, I demonstrate how dreams in Gilgamesh are fundamentally different from dreams in Homer in the way that they relate to the time and space of the narrative reality. Since the dreamscapes of the respective epics are connected to space and time differently, it follows that navigating between the narrative spaces of reality and dream must differ from epic to epic. Following this thread, I shift my focus in Chapter Two from dream description to dream interpretation. By studying the terminology used to describe the process of interpreting dreams in the respective epics, I demonstrate how the narrative proper and the dreamscape are meant to be separated in Homer but transposed in Gilgamesh. Having established these fundamental differences in the function of dreams as narrative devices in the respective epics, in Part Two, I shift from the comparison of dreams to a comparison of narrative liminal spaces. In Chapter Three, I argue that the dreams in Gilgamesh and similes in Homer are alike in the way that they interrupt their respective narratives by momentarily displacing the narratee from the narrative proper into a para-narratival space. This space can be thought of as “liminal” in the sense that it is a space distinct from yet tangential to the narrative and relatively less well defined than the narrative to which it is attached. In Chapter Four I explore how the movement between these liminal spaces and the narrative proper generates a quality that is recognized as “vividness” and is linked to a divine perspective. However, the nuances in the epics’ engagement with the liminal spaces of dream and simile, respectively, open access to that perspective in distinct ways. In Part Three I explore how the epics conceive of the audience’s role in engaging with these liminal spaces by studying the relationship between internal narrators and narratees in the most prominent embedded narratives of the epic poems, namely Odyssey 9-12 and Gilgamesh Tablet XI. In Chapter Five, I argue that Odysseus as a narrator uses the liminal space of simile to draw out certain characteristics from his audience as he orients them to view the unfolding of the narrative from a perspective that is shaped by both narrator and audience. The active roles of narrator and audience in Homer work in contrast to the relatively more passive roles invited by Gilgamesh. In Chapter Six, I study Gilgamesh’s quest for immortality as a negative exemplum of mortal conduct, arguing that his sleepless journey represents an act of rebellion as the hero rejects the gods’ counsel and direction as communicated through dreams and instead attempts to assert his own agency over his narrative. Part Four branches out from internal to external narrators and narratees. In Chapter Seven, I examine how Gilgamesh uses three ring compositions to enfold its external audience into a structure and narrative that are presented as ever-present, which is to say never to be created but only to be fulfilled. In contrast, in Chapter Eight, I turn to Aristotle’s treatment of metaphor and simile in the Poetics and the Rhetoric to consider Homeric similes through the lens of cognitive studies. I argue that Homeric similes can be seen as community-building spaces where narrator and narratee come together as co-eyewitnesses of a narrative whose sense of presence is as dependent on the narrator as it is on the audience. I conclude by demonstrating the nuanced distinction in which the dreams in Gilgamesh and similes in Homer function narratologically as liminal spaces to contribute to each epic’s sense of eternal “presence.” Ultimately, the epic narrative of Gilgamesh is portrayed as an eternal establishment independent of human interaction, while the Homeric epics recursively strive after a renewal of presence in the here and now of performance through audience engagement.
Recommended Citation
Kim, Erynn, "Epic Liminal Spaces: Dreams, Similes, and the Poetics of Vividness in Gilgamesh and Homer" (2024). Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations. 1260.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/gsas_dissertations/1260
