Sobre la materialidad del poema épico o cómo la edición no hace al libro: estética y canon en el sistema literario impreso

Abstract

The renewal of the literary system emerged under the cultural movements of the eighteenth century. This motivated a reinforced presence of the epic genre. Thus, through the battle between ancients and moderns, new translations and editions of Greek and Latin classics were published. At the same time, this motivated the composition of new epic poems and the subsequent debate along a canon. This article proposes a study that addresses the construction and aesthetics of this group of texts in terms of their material support: edition, illustrations, engravings, collections, complete works. In this way, it is observed how the physical conception of a book fosters the institutionalization or not of a literary canon, along with an aesthetic recognizable by the public.