Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

George H. Thomson. "The Making of the Iliad." College Literature, 3:155-67.

A general explication of the Iliad as an oral epic from the Parry-Lord perspective. Warns that "if we do not discipline our expectations in accordance with the exigencies of oral composition, we will obscure the true character of the poem by importing into it a rag-bag of modern assumptions" (155). References to stock epithets, similes, and other typical stylistic devices, with emphasis on the characters' absence of "inward-looking self-awareness and self-denial" (161).
Area: AG, SC, CP