The Oral Epic
From Performance to Interpretation
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Published:31st May '23
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£150.00(9780367761318)
This book focuses on the performance of oral epics and explores the significance of performance features for the interpretation of epic poetry.
The leading question of the book is how the socio-cultural context of performance and the various performance elements contribute to the meaning of oral epics. This is a question which not only concerns epics collected from living oral tradition, but which is also of importance for the understanding of the epics of antiquity and the Middle Ages which originated and flourished in an oral milieu.
The book is based on fieldwork in the still vibrant oral traditions of the Turkic peoples of Central Asia and Siberia. The discussion combines fieldwork with theory; it is not limited to Turkic epics but branches out into other oral traditions.
Underlying The Oral Epic: From Performance to Interpretation are Reichl’s pioneering labor of many decades to inform research on orality in medieval European literatures by means of his extensive fieldwork with Central Asian Turkic oral bards (Parry’s first and unrealized choice as ethnographic subjects to test his path-breaking theory of Homeric composition) and his grounding in musicology, ethno-and otherwise. The book goes beyond this basis, however. It is one of the most broadly comparative single-authored syntheses of research yet produced on living or recently living oral epic traditions worldwide. As such, the book makes a worthy American/oralist complement to synthetic works in the other schools (for example, A. T. Hatto, “Towards an Anatomy of Heroic and Epic Poetry,” in Traditions of Heroic and Epic Poetry, Vol. 2, 1989; and V. M. Gatsak, Ustnaia ėpicheskaia traditsiia vo vremeni, 1989). Moreover, its conciseness, evenness in treating matters of broad scope, and accessible style make it suitable for use as a textbook.
--Daniel Prior, Miami University for Journal of American Folklore
ISBN: 9781032038087
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 453g
270 pages