A General Study of the Epic in terms of Comparative Culture

本研究的目的是：（1）从历时和共时的角度重新审视整个史诗世界，厘清不同文化区域史诗的共同点和各自的独特点;（B）从共时和历时的角度扩大史诗的研究范围，分析人类共同点与历史文化差异点之间的关系，探讨不同历史文化区域史诗同质性的根源。至于史诗的寓言性质问题，佐佐木在他的论文《拉伯西斯的提喻》中讨论了迷宫在希腊和罗马史诗中的使用及其对莎士比亚的影响。加塞在《荷马史诗中的神的一面：社会关系与说服》一书中从叙事和历史的角度探讨了说服技巧。T.铃木、荻、高桥在《平家故事的诗化》（T。铃木），“人类的Ukara”（Ogi）和“故事类型和信息的转变”<Complaint in Heavens>（高桥）。关于不同文化中如何形成“史诗”这一共同观念的问题，卡里贝在《通过日本的妖怪传说阅读古英语史诗《贝奥武夫》》一书中研究了古英语史诗《贝奥武夫》和日本妖怪学中的共同因素。

The purposes of this research have been as follows :A) To reconsider the whole epic world from the diachronic and synchronic point of view and clarify the aspects common to epics belonging to different cultural regions and those specific to each epic.B) To enlarge the field of the epic in terms of synchronicity and diachronicity and to analyze the relationship between aspects common to humanity and those historically and culturally different in order to study the origin of the same qualities of epics that belong to different historical and cultural, regions.The results of our study in the academic years 2000-2002 are as follows :As for the problem of allegorical quality of the epic, Sasaki discusses the use of the labyrinth in Greek and Roman epics and its influence on Shakespeare in his treatise 'The Synecdoche of the Labyrinth'. Kasai discusses the techniques of persuasion from the narrative and historical point of view in his 'An Aspect of Gods in Homer : Social Relationship and Persuasion'. T. Suzuki, Ogi and Takahashi discuss the problems of narration and narrator in the different cultural regions in their 'The Versification of The Tale of Heike'(T. Suzuki), 'Ukara of Human Beings'(Ogi) and 'The Transformation of Tale Type and Message in the case of <Complaint in Heavens>' (Takahashi). As for the problem of how the common idea of 'epic' is formed in different cultures, Karibe studies the common elements in the old English epic Beowulf and Japanese demonology in his 'Reading the Old English Epic Beowulf through the Japanese Monster Lore'.