The Odyssey: A Modern Interpretation
"The first purpose of an epic poem," notes Carol Jago inWith Rigor For All: Teaching the Classics to Contemporary Students, "is to entertain, to tell a story" (13). And while the excitement, adventure, and heroics inherent in reading an epic might provide substantial engagement for some students, Jago argues that teachers should not stop there. She notes that "close at heels of pleasure is the message that...we [like heroes in classical epics] must define and contest the 'issues of importance' for our own society" (13).
Do Now: Read the above quote and answer the following: How does society redefine their heroes? What examples can you identify in your life?
Today we will learn about Romare Bearden’s (1911-1988) artistic interpretation of Homer’s The Odyssey. Using watercolor and collage Bearden created “The Black Odyssey” that serves as a visual epic of Bearden’s cultural journey home. Bearden redefines The Odyssey through his experience as an African American citizen whose influence of the Harlem Renaissance and Civil Rights Movement evokes a new message.
Bearden does not merely illustrate Homer -- he is Homer’s true collaborator. He works with and against the earlier master, translating the ancient stories through a 20th century visual voice to show their relevance to contemporary concerns.
For one thing, Bearden has made his Odyssean characters black—raising the issue of race, that enduring American dilemma (as well as racism, which Bearden confronted throughout his life). Here, he invites us to consider: If The Odyssey is truly universal, then Homer’s heroes, villains, monsters and saviors can be black. (Smithsonian)
Words to Own:
1. Virtuoso: Expert; Genius
2. Connotation: Inference ; Suggestion
3. Displacement: Movement; Shift
4. Universal: existent or operative everywhere or under all conditions: cultural patterns embracing a major part or the greatest portion (as of humankind). Universal state
How much responsibility do we bear for our lives?
“The Odyssey, makes clear from the beginning that humans must take charge of their own lives. This is a modern way of seeing.” What is the “modern way of seeing”? (Smithsonian 2012).
Temptation throws Odysseus and his crew off course.
God-blown winds take the Greeks to the seductive realm of the Lotus Eaters, a people living large in a drunken swoon induced by “flowering food.” Odysseus brings his men back by force and ties them tightly to the ships.
Later the Greeks encounter the Sirens, goddesses whose enchanting voices lure men to leap into the sea. Odysseus plugs his “oarsmen’s ears with beeswax kneaded soft” and orders himself lashed to the mast so that “I alone should listen to their song.”
Odysseus as a Black Man
Reflecting traditions from ancient Greek vases, and Egyptian icons, as well as the flat silhouettes of the Cubists and the cutouts of Henri Matisse, Bearden’s black figures are forthrightly multicultural. At the same time, they remind us of Bearden’s identity as a modern black American artist who claims all art as his birthright. In his Odysseus series, Bearden asserts that the epic’s main themes—a father and husband trying to get home, a son missing his father, a hero endlessly tempted to give up his quest, a wife’s tested patience—apply to black people as well as to anyone else. Homer “is universal.” says Bearden.
Bearden:
“…so if a child in Benin or in Louisiana . . . sees my paintings of Odysseus, he can understand the myth better.”
--- Romare Bearden, explaining why the characters were black.”
Robert O’Meally, Curator of
“Through his Art he tells the epic story of African America and at the same time he was so committed to telling the story of mankind in general.” Curator
“…we, too, are seeking home. We, too have been through love and trouble and temptation and death and terrible suffering, and somehow we are the heroes of the story.”
Photographer
“He’s universalizing a particular here.”
Bearden on the universal framework:
“I feel that what struck me about the Odyssey is that all of us, from the time we begin to think, are on an odyssey. In this case home looking for the values that are kind of everlasting, you know when you’re home. Or Telemachus, the son, or the search for your father. And this is applicable to everyone.
Group Responsibilities: Generate questions that identify Homer’s or Bearden’s themes and ideas and move beyond text to the broader interpretation of the journey home. Bearden embarks on a different path in his life. Compare and contrast Homer’s Odyssey to Bearden’s Black Odyssey.
Question Starters: Design your own questions
When does making a place for oneself mean overtaking the place of another?
How does myth provide an extension of understanding to literature or art?
How does Bearden’s passion to be a “great story teller” connect to Homer?