Epigonism and the dynamic of culture

The articles collected in this volume were originally presented at a summercolloquium in Oxford in 2004. The epigone is generally believed to be animitator depr... » 

The articles collected in this volume were originally presented at a summercolloquium in Oxford in 2004. The epigone is generally believed to be animitator deprived of an independent original talent. He necessarily followsin someone elses footsteps a source of inspiration that can or indeed mustbe identified. The epigone can operate only after a certain span of timeduring which he has studied his example and learned how to follow in hismasters footsteps. An epigone is always influenced be it consciously orunconsciously by another person or by the surrounding cultural climate. Theepigone is per definition second rate. Furthermore it is believed that theepigonic product cannot have an independent value. Its only value lies indemonstrating a condition in culture a spirit of the area a trend in thearts philosophy or any other human occupation. Rather than continuing to viewepigonism as a natural if regrettable part of the cultural process aninevitable secondary stage within the development of any corpus the essays inthis volume approach the phenomenon from a perspective that is at once moreneutral and more positive. They do so not by rehabilitating the quality of theepigones output but by redefining his role within the cultural process perse. In each of these contributions epigones appear as the true carriers of inthis case Jewish culture. Rather than mere witnesses or at best historicalmirrors of primary canonical cultural codes and modes they represent one ofthe dynamic forces within the development of a culture. For the epigone is notmerely imitating but also disseminating. It is not the isolated peaks of thecultural panorama that the articles in this book seek to map out but themodest planes that allow us to travel the landscape in the first place. «