Editing Epic poetry (section)

===Non-European forms===

Long poetic narratives that do not fit the traditional European definition of the heroic epic are sometimes known as folk epics. Indian folk epics have been investigated by Lauri Honko (1998),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Siri Epic as performed by Gopala Naika |url=https://tiedekirja.fi/en/siri-epic-as-performed-by-gopala-naika |access-date=2022-11-01 |website=tiedekirja.fi |language=en}}</ref> Brenda Beck (1982) <ref>{{Cite web |title=The Three Twins: The Telling of a South Indian Folk Epic, by Brenda E. F. Beck {{!}} The Online Books Page |url=https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book//lookupid?key=olbp74886 |access-date=2022-11-01 |website=onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu}}</ref> and John Smith, amongst others. Folk epics are an important part of community identities.

====Egypt====
The folk genre known as al-sira relates the saga of the Hilālī tribe and their migrations across the Middle East and north Africa, see Bridget Connelly (1986).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Connelly |first=Bridget |url=http://archive.org/details/arabfolkepiciden0000conn |title=Arab folk epic and identity |date=1986 |publisher=Berkeley : University of California Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-520-05536-0}}</ref>

==== India====
{{main|Indian epic poetry}}
In India, folk epics reflect the caste system of Indian society and the life of the lower levels of society, such as cobblers and shepherds, see C.N. Ramachandran, "Ambivalence and Angst: A Note on Indian folk epics," in Lauri Honko (2002. p.&nbsp;295).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Honko |first=Lauri |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oqQSAQAAIAAJ |title=The Kalevala and the World's Traditional Epics |date=2002 |publisher=Finnish Literature Society |isbn=978-951-746-422-2 |language=en}}</ref> Some Indian oral epics feature strong women who actively pursue personal freedom in their choice of a romantic partner (Stuart, Claus, Flueckiger and Wadley, eds, 1989, p.&nbsp;5).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Oral epics in India {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/18070481 |access-date=2022-11-01 |website=www.worldcat.org |language=en}}</ref>

==== Japan ====
Japanese traditional performed narratives were sung by blind singers. One of the most famous, [[The Tale of the Heike]], deals with historical wars and had a ritual function to placate the souls of the dead (Tokita 2015, p.&nbsp;7).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Japanese Singers of Tales: Ten Centuries of Performed Narrative |url=https://www.routledge.com/Japanese-Singers-of-Tales-Ten-Centuries-of-Performed-Narrative/Tokita/p/book/9780367599553 |access-date=2022-11-01 |website=Routledge & CRC Press |language=en}}</ref>

====Africa====
A variety of epic forms are found in Africa. Some have a linear, unified style while others have a more cyclical, episodic style (Barber 2007, p.&nbsp;50).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barber |first=Karin |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/anthropology-of-texts-persons-and-publics/7B7C174C35CCE4D91CDD779458CD442F |title=The Anthropology of Texts, Persons and Publics |date=2007 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-83787-3 |series=New Departures in Anthropology |location=Cambridge}}</ref> The best known of African epics is [[Epic of Sundiata]] from Mali. Some contemporary scholarship presses against the bifurcation of "epic vs. novel".<ref>Repinecz, Jonathon. ''Subversive traditions: Reinventing the West African Epic''. Michigan State University Press, 2019.</ref>

There is also the epic of "Kelefaa Saane", "part of the repertoire that maintains the memroy of a legendary warrior prince of Kaabu, a kingdom in the [[Senegambia|Senegambian]] area of West Africa, in the nineteenth century".<ref>p. ix, Camara, Sirifo. ''The Epic of Kelefaa Saane.'' Indiana University Press, 2010.</ref>

====China====
People in the rice cultivation zones of south China sang long narrative songs about the origin of rice growing, rebel heroes, and transgressive love affairs (McLaren 2022).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Memory Making in Folk Epics of China: The Intimate and the Local in Chinese Regional Culture By Anne E. McLaren |url=https://www.cambriapress.com/pub.cfm?bid=854 |access-date=2022-11-01 |website=www.cambriapress.com}}</ref> The borderland ethnic populations of China sang heroic epics, such as the [[Epic of King Gesar]] of the [[Mongols]], and the creation-myth epics of the [[Yao people]] of south China.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-columbia-anthology-of-chinese-folk-and-popular-literature/9780231153126 |title=The Columbia Anthology of Chinese Folk and Popular Literature |date=May 2011 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-52673-9 |editor-last=Mair |editor-first=Victor H. |editor-last2=Bender |editor-first2=Mark}}</ref>