The Singer of Tales

by Lord, Albert Bates; Mitchell, Stephen; Nagy, Gregory

• ISBN13: 9780674002838
• ISBN10: 0674002830
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-05-19
• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

Summary

This 40th anniversary edition of Albert Lord's classic work includes a unique enhancement: a CD containing the original audio recordings of all the passages of heroic songs quoted in the book; a video publication of the kinescopic filming of the most valued of the singers; and selected photographs taken during Milman Parry's collecting trips in the Balkans. Parry began recording and studying a live tradition of oral narrative poetry in order to find an answer to the age-old Homeric Question: How had the author of the Iliad and Odyssey composed these two monumental epic poems at the very start of Europe's literary tradition? Parry's, and with him Lord's, enduring contribution--set forth in Lord's The Singer of Tales--was to demonstrate the process by which oral poets compose. Now reissued with a new Introduction and an invaluable audio and visual record, this widely influential book is newly enriched to better serve everyone interested in the art and craft of oral literature.

Author Biography

Gregory Nagy is the Jones Professor of Classical Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature, Harvard University.

Table of Contents

The Theory

Introduction

Singers: Performance and Training

The Formula

The Theme

Songs and the Song

Writing and Oral Tradition

The Application

Homer

The Odyssey

The Iliad

Some Notes on Medieval Epic

Appendices

Notes

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.