The Epic and imagology: Self and Enemy

Imagology, as un approach in comparative literature that studies the images and representations of the alien ("other") in a literary work, may have a special relation with epic genre; because only in this genre representation of Other necessarily accompanies rejection, fear and exaggerated humiliation; and in the trilogy of reactions to the alien, defined by Daniel Henri Pageaux, i.e. xenophobia, xenophilia and xenomania, this representation is placed in former category. The epic genre, in fact, is an identity-based genre that, highlighting the differences and conflicts between Us and the Other, puts a lid on the internal contradictions and conflicts and reconstructs social identity. This identity is certainly defined in relation to an otherness which monsters and ogres are examples. In this article, we would analyze the poetic of Other representation in the epic genre, study the mechanism of exclusion and deformation of the alien, and examine its relation whit the intrinsic properties of epic.