Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Dennis Tedlock. "On the Translation of Style in Oral Narrative." Journal of American Folklore, 84:114-33.

Decries the lame translations of oral narrative, especially the limp, literal prose renderings characteristically fashioned by Boasian anthropologists, and calls for translation that preserves the qualities of the oral performance. Using as illustration passages from Zun~i tradition, and mentioning formulas, archaic interjections, onomatopoeic words, voice quality, loudness, pausing, intonation, and various sorts of repetition and parallelism, he describes the immediate analytic and aesthetic rewards incumbent on a translation that takes account of these factors.
Area: AI, CP