Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Hector Munro Chadwick and Nora K. Chadwick. The Growth of Literature, 3 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rpt. 1968.

Focuses on literature, ancient to modern, produced in a culture before writing has become the conventional literary mode. Volume 1 presents descriptive analyses of the more remote or isolated ancient literatures of Europe; volume 2 treats Russian and SC oral poetry, as well as early Indian and Hebrew literature; volume 3 covers the oral literature of the Tatars and Polynesia, with shorter notes on the traditions of the North Borneans and some African peoples. Concludes with a general survey of the characteristics of oral literature: genres, types, circumstances of composition and recitation, singers. A remarkably wide-ranging and yet exacting comparative work that will not be superseded as a reference.
Area: CP