Description: List of plates Preface to the Midland edition Corrigenda Preface to the first edition Acknowledgements 1 Introductory 1 The importance of oral poetry 2 Some forms of oral poetry 3 What is oral in oral poetry? 4 The poetry in oral poetry 5 Performance and text 2 Some approaches to the study of oral poetry 1 Romantic and evolutionist theories 2 The historical-georgraphical school 3 Sociological approaches and the sociology of literature 4 Two ideal types of society and poetry 3 Composition 1 Is memorisation the key factor? 2 Composition-in-performance, and the oral-formulaic theory 3 How valid is the oral-formulaic theory? 4 Prior composition, memorisation and performance 5 Conclusion 4 Style and performance 1 The relevance of style and performance 2 Prosodic systems 3 Repetition, style and structure 4 Language and diction 5 Performance 6 Is there a special oral style? 7 Conclusion 5 Transmission, distribution and publication 1 Oral transmission over space and time: some striking cases 2 Inert tradition, memorisation or re-creation? 3 How do oral poems reach their audiences? 4 Oral transmission and writing 5 Conclusion 6 Poets and their positions 1 The poet: five case studies 2 Some types of poets: specialists, experts and occasional poets 3 Are oral poets anonymous? 4 The poet as seer 5 The poet as individual genius 7 Audience, context and function 1 Some types of audience 2 The effect and the composition of audiences 3 The purpose and meaning of poetry: local theories 4 Some effects of oral poetry 8 Poetry and society 1 The link between poetic and social institutions 2 Does one type of poetry always go with a particular form of society? Heroic age, ballad society and oral culture 3 Literature as the reflection adn consequence of social forms 4 Literature as social action Concluding comment References Index

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