Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Maurice Delbouilleuille. "Les Chansons de geste et le livre." In La Technique litéraire des chansons de geste: Actes du Colloque de Liége (septembre 1957). Bibliothéque de la Faculté de Liège, fa sc. 150. Ed. Maurice Delbouille. Paris: Société d'Editon "Les Belles Lettres," pp. 295-407.

An extended critique of Rychner's (1955) thesis that the chanson de geste was a genre of orally improvised and transmitted poems unstable in their texts and composed of diverse traditional elements. Noting the lack of evidence of a chanson de geste tradition prior to the twelfth century, he rejects the concept of the jongleur as author in favor of a cleric-minstrel who composed in writing an d borrowed from the older hagiographic tradition in inventing a new genre. Contends with Rychner on the issues of improvisation, unity, laisse and strophe subdivisions, the technique of refrain and formula, and the significance of manuscript variations. Extensive reference to primary texts.
Area: OF