It's all fugue, contrast and tension to me

After spending the past 6 months launching a new website - STRAY: The Adventure Journal - I've returned to my interest in literature by picking up "It's all Greek to me" by Charlotte Higgins. A survey of Greek influence on the modern world, the book rightfully starts out with a discussion of Homer, that well-spring of Greek culture - and thus Western culture.

From the first chapter, it's got me thinking about literary theory. The author had me when she started talking about the "architecture" of the Iliad. Specifically, I was struck by a discussion of how Homer, in The Odyssey, slips in mention Agamemnon's less than happy homecoming to Argos after the Trojan war. "He returned home only to be slaughtered unceremoniously by his wife's lover Aegisthus - who in turn, was murdered by Orestes, Agamemnon's son," she writes.

Higgins points out the architectural function of including this story in Odysseus' epic is to provide an alternative story against which the main story unfolds. If Odysseus doesn't play his return right, he might meet the same fate as Agamemnon. Will Odysseus' son Telemachus turn out to be as brave a boy as Aegisthus? Will Odysseus wife Penelope, who house is lousy with suitors, betray her husband the way Agamemnon was betrayed?

The story of Agamemnon's return seems superfluous, but is in fact central to establishing the drama of the Odyssey.

It got me thinking of several techniques and elements of storytelling. The first is the concept of literary fugue, which I've discussed before. That is, a pattern that serves as a benchmark for the main action of the story. Here, the story of Agamemnon's tragic homecoming serves as a pattern against which the story of Odysseus is compared.

The second technique, then, is contrast or juxtaposition. When Odysseus accomplishes his homecoming, it is more meaningful because the readers understands the alternative. There is a tension between the possible and the actual.

And speaking of tension, prior to known how the story unfolds, the introduction of the story of Agamemnon's return serves to heighten the reader's anticipation through foreshadowing possible outcomes. We want to know if the same pattern will be repeated. We fear for Odysseus, Telemachus and Penelope, while rooting for them to come out on top. We want Odysseus to root the greedy suitors, for Telemachus to become a man and for Penelope to stick by her man.