Oral Tradition

The Parry-Lord oral-formulaic theory. Milman Parry's fieldwork with Yugoslav singers proved that Homer's epithets weren't decorative but functional tools for real-time composition.

Parry-Lord Theory (16)

The Making of Homeric Verse: Collected Papers of Milman Parry
1971 · Oxford · Edited by Adam Parry
The Singer of Tales
Albert Lord, 1960 · The definitive statement of oral-formulaic theory
Oral-Formulaic Theory and Middle English Alliterative Poetry
Applications beyond Homer
Oral Theory and the Limits of Formulaic Diction
Critical examination of the theory
South Slavic Oral Epic and the Homeric Question
The Yugoslav parallel that proved the theory
The Milman Parry Collection
Harvard's archive of recordings and manuscripts
Albert Lord: Bibliography and Resources
Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies
In Defense of Milman Parry
Responding to critics of oral-formulaic theory
Homer and Oral Tradition
Mark Edwards · Survey of the field
Oral Tradition Journal
The field's primary journal (open access archive)
The Milman Parry Collection: History and Significance
David Elmer
How to Read an Oral Poem
John Miles Foley, 2002
Immanent Art: From Structure to Meaning in Traditional Oral Epic
John Miles Foley, 1991
Traditional Oral Epic: The Odyssey, Beowulf, and the Serbo-Croatian Return Song
John Miles Foley, 1990
Characteristics of Orality
Albert Lord, 1987 · Oral Tradition 2(1)
The Singer Resumes the Tale
Albert Lord, 1995 · Posthumous essays
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