Soon to be on the road, headed to Colorado, I don't know that this post will be more than a brief shout-out in the midst of silence. I have had the content of this post planned since last Sunday morning when I sat and listened to the sermon by Pastor Lou Houesmann at Grace Brethren in Long Beach. Settle back with some hot coffee and click here for the mp3. And happy birthday to my dearling sister, Amanda.
because you were all wondering what I'm writing my dissertation on, here's a brief synopsis of my 'research context': When James Macpherson published his Fragments of Ancient Poetry in 1760, he went to great lengths to make the Fragments appear to be authentic remains of an ancient, heroic oral tradition. His reasons for this were largely political, and as such, influenced the content of the epics themselves. As an attempt to establish a particularly Scottish identity, the poems were quite effective. However, to do so required both a simplification and a manipulation of traditional mythology. Stripped of anagogical significance, the Ossian epics more or less represented an Enlightenment version of history, tradition, and mythic heritage. The stories themselves were changed by their very purpose and in turn changed the manner of representing myth in future narratives. Moreover, the emphasis on the Ossian epics as authentic tales from the past, as ‘fragments,’ served...
You know Colorado is only Kansas away from Missouri...
ReplyDeleteI really promise I posted a response to this days ago. Stupid blogger never remembers my precious words! grr...
ReplyDeletethere is still only Kansas, but of course you're probably already in CA.
ReplyDelete