Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Michael J. Jeffreys. "The Nature and Origins of the Political Verse." Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 28:141-95.

Posits the twelfth-century vernacular political verse "as a major medium of expression for the illiterate and half-literate members of Greek society_verse written, spoken, and sung by them and for them" (161). The verse form was also used for instruction via memorization, exploiting a medium "usually employed for oral entertainment" (175) for pedagogical purposes. The religious poems are to be traced to the same vernacular source, while the court poems are far removed from oral tradition. Notes that his comments apply only to events that took place in the urban environment of Constantinople and that "there seems to be no other tradition of oral poetry and folk song whose meter came into existence for a restricted purpose within an urban environment" (195).
Area: BG