Culture · 6 pages · 12 min
How oral epic used formulas
Formulas let a singer compose long verse while the performance is underway.
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From the opening
Oral epic uses formulas, repeated phrases shaped to fill a slot in the meter, so a singer can compose while performing rather than only reciting one fixed text from memory. The repetition is a technique for making the next line under time pressure, not only a refrain for the audience. The opening covers why formulas fit a metrical slot, how type scenes recombine a tale, and what living singers showed.
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Inside
- Why formulas fit a metrical slot
- How type scenes recombine a tale
- What living singers showed
- When writers imitate the kit
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- The Parry-Lord oral-formulaic account of epic
- Type scenes as larger compositional units