Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Marcel Jousse. Le Style oral rhythmique et mnemotéchnique chez les Verbo-moteurs, APh, 2. Cahier IV, 1-240. Rpt. Paris: Gabriel Beauchesne, 1925.

Among the many examples of oral composition, some by literates and some by preliterates, he examines the rhythmical basis of the oral style (pp. 108-18, mentioning the SC guslar), oral composers (pp. 133-55), a fieldwork experiment conducted by Krauss in Yugoslavia (p. 163), the Iliad and Odyssey as oral compositions only later set down in writing (pp. 177-78), and various parallel structures within oral texts (pp. 191-232). Appends an eclectic bibliography of ethnographic, linguistic, and scientific sources. An important influence on Parry's crucial modulation from traditional structure to an oral Homer.
Area: AG, SC, CP