Foley Tradtion and Collective Talent

Tradition and the Collective Talent: Oral Epic, Textual Meaning, and Receptionalist Theory Author(s): John Miles
Foley Source: Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 1, No. 2, The Dialectic of Oral and Literary Hermeneutics (May, 1986), pp. 203-222 Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/656267 . Accessed: 09/07/2013 15:57
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Wiley and American Anthropological Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Cultural Anthropology.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 193.225.200.93 on Tue, 9 Jul 2013 15:57:21 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Tradition and the Collective Talent: Oral Epic, Textual Meaning, and Receptionalist Theory
John Miles Foley
Department of English University of Missouri, Columbia
For some time, literarycritics, folklorists, oral theorists,and all scholarsinterested for one reason or anotherin oral literatureand traditionhave wrestled with a nagging and seemingly insoluble dilemmathathas takenmany forms and resists being held captive in any single, all-encompassingformulation.I mention as examples the academicjousting over analyticalterms such as the phraseological "formula" and the narrative"theme" and the long debatesover what is or is not a "motif. " The basic questionamountsto this:can we agreeon a grammar of compositional units and further,does our chosen model remainviable as we cross the linguistic line from one traditionto another? For the purposesof this essay and in orderto speak directlyto the concerns of this special collection of papers, I shall leapfrog both a bibliographicalrehearsalof particular issues andthe inevitablepolemics involved, and insteadconcentrate on proposing a solution to the "unit problem" which, while perhaps ratherradical in itself, finds its seeds in the writingsof WalterOng, Eric Havelock, WernerKelber, FranzBauml, CharlesSegal, RobertKellogg, and others. In concertwith the generalshift of criticalfocus fromthe textas objectto the work as the reader'sexperience of that object, I suggest that we define the "units" of oral traditional discourse not strictlyand exclusively as textualdata, but also and equally as the necessarily subjective apprehensionof those data by a readeror participant(whateverthe priorexperienceof the readeror participant may be). I propose that we take as a startingpoint the idea of the work and its partsas processes ratherthan as an artificeand its discretecomponents,andthatwe stipulate thatthe unitof discourse-whether phraseologicalor narrative-cannot be understood as an objectbut only as a response. In otherwords, to summonthe canonical Parry-Lord"oral formula" as an example, we need to realize that the phraseological unit consists not only of whateverchirographicavatarthe highly literate readeruses as a reading mnemonic, but also and crucially of the informedbut finally subjective response one makes to those "little black dots on the white page" in the larger context of the unexpressed(and inexpressible)reality of an oral tradition.
203
204 CULTURALANTHROPOLOGY
After all, even in the banalizedconfrontationwith Homeroffered by texts that are essentially only librettifor performance,we come to develop an ear for Homeric phraseology, narrativestructure, and story pattern. Those fortunate enough to be acquaintedwith a living and well-collected oral traditioncan learn work. yet more aboutwhat it meansto be a faithfulaudiencefor an oraltraditional of fundamental hear the harmonics And to the extent that we as readerscan still traditional melodies in the individualperformance text, we can recognizethe true instanced are natureof compositional units: they by synecdoche in the text but them as traditional lies in theirultimatereality signalsthatbringtheir experiencing as metonymic cues such units serve all In a context into sense, play. unspoken the workwith each reading thatassist the readerin formulatingandreformulating wordhoard andthe inexperience, mediatingHermes-likebetweenthe traditional dividual text to supportthe poet and readerin their sharedtask of "raising the great song once more"--even if (nominallyat least) for the firsttime. In orderto provide a clear illustrationof what I mean by distinguishingthe fromthe in-processexperienceof thatstrucsimple presenceof a textualstructure andfocused turein context, we mustboth limit the textualsampleto a manageable thereIn what an of works and follows, prescribe apposite methodology. group fore, I shall be looking principallyat what is actually a pan-Balkan(and very the tale-typethatAlbertLordhas called the story-form: probablyIndo-European) will be the HomericGreekOdyssey, "ReturnSong."2 Our primarycomparanda Return which survives from at least the 8th centuryB.C., andthe Serbo-Croatian and Lord of versions in hundreds collected of a Parry by Song, sub-genre epic from the 1930s onward(not to mentionmultipleversions gatheredby earlierinvestigatorslike Karadzic, H6rmann,and Marjanovicin the 19th century).3We of the ReturnSong per se, shall of course be concernedinitiallywith the structure but the emphasis will be on the effect of that structure,or readingsignal, on the readerand on the identityof the unit not as a textualdatumbut as a subjectively experiencedpattern.Towardthis end I begin with a sketchof the approach. A Methodology: Reader-Response Criticism In recentyears, literarycriticismhas rathersteadilyevolved away from textto interpretacentrismin many differentdirections, but most currentapproaches the tion of literarytexts share a basic credo: they concentrateon redistributing hermeneutical emphasisback from the text as object towardthe readeras subjective participantin what is conceived of as a readingprocess, an experience of phenomenologicalimport. This ongoing process, the experienceof the work of art, is usually understoodas originally stimulatedby a tangible entity such as a printedbook, but the critic's responsibilitydoes not and cannotend with descripsuch an analysis tion of the artifact, however thoroughor even groundbreaking as object and on the text focus the blurs be. The hermeneutic imperative might influence of a text's as the work of the idea relief the into product literary brings and creative active reader's the without it a to reader; put proscriptively, upon involvementin a literarydiscoursetheremay exist an object text but therecan be no work, simply because there can be no process, no experience.
TRADITIONAND THE COLLECTIVE TALENT 205
One of the most fertile brandsof this new attentionto the experienceof encriticism" counteringa work is what many have referredto as "reader-response or "receptionalism."4Underthis set of assumptions,the successfulcriticwill ask or formalprosodicrules he can describeor elabhimself not what image-patterns but will go on to determinehow those textualsignot orate (at least exclusively), nals teach him to read. Thus it is that Wolfgang Iser can speak of a "virtual" dimension of a text, in addition to its black-and-white,temporalreality: "The literarytext activates our own faculties, enablingus to recreatethe world it presents. The productof this creative activity is what we might call the virtualdimensionof the text, which endows it with its reality. This virtualdimensionis not the text itself, nor is it the imaginationof the reader:it is the coming togetherof the text and imagination" (1974a:270). Thus when a reader-response critic describes a textual feature, such as one of the customaryliterary-critical repertoireof image, symbol, and so forth, he of the featurebut does not limit the descriptionto the objective, in-text character asks in additionhow thatfeatureaffects the readerand how one's overall reading of a workis informedby the resultingengagementwith the text. Nor is the process that is stimulatedby a textual feature-itself one-dimensionaluntil the perceptions it activates begin to figure in the reader'sown activity-entirely subjective or uncontrolled;the configurationof readingsignals collectively exercises a degree of restrainton how one puts a work together.Thatis, textualfeaturesallow but in a successful, unifiedwork some subjectivevariationin their interpretation, that variationnever proceeds beyond a certainpoint. Thus it is that a reader-reits comsponse critic will often speakof a text "teaching" its readerto apprehend plexities, whetherby reference to a certainmythologicalpattern,inclusion of a certainsubgenre, or whatever. The essential point is that textual featuresare active and dynamic in that they reach outside of the text to make meaningfulconnections to the reader'sextratextual experience. If in doing so some of our most works-the Oresteia, Hamlet, the Iliad, Paradise Lost, for exampleimportant we shouldrecognizethatthis shape-shiftactuallydefy exhaustiveinterpretation, ing is simply the most immediatesign of theircontinuingability to engage their variousreadershipsover the centuriesin a lively and continuingdialogue. Anotherway to picturethe same phenomenologicalprocessis to conceive of the readermoving from the textual librettoto his own performanceof the work by filling what Iser refers to as a series of "gaps."5 Accordingto this model, the authorincludes as integralpartsof his textualmap certainuncharted regions, certain intermediateareasaboutwhich therecan be found no specific, unambiguous information.These gaps constitutethe reader'slicense to co-createthe work, and the authorhas cooperatedin-even encouraged-this subjectiveactivityby leaving unmarkedsome of the particularlogical bridges to be crossed. Although in of this sort the authorwill have identifiedouter limits any successful partnership to the reader's subjective solution of the performancequandary,and thus will have precludedany unguided activity detrimentalor disruptiveto the work as a whole, the fact remains that at certainpoints in the text the readermust make a critic, this is the momentof truth: personalleap of logic. For the reader-response
ANTHROPOLOGY 206 CULTURAL
if the text has adequatelyinstructedthe reader,he should be able, within limits, burdenand providecontinuitybased on his to shoulderhis partof the interpretive and extratextualexperience. This interaction,this bridgingof gaps, intratextual is the core of the readingprocess, the meansby which the objectivetext becomes the experiencedwork. Patterns and Gaps in Oral Literature: The Story of Return One of the most common textualsignals in oral epic, one thatamountsto an interpretive map for literallythousandsof epic poems and one thatis particularly familiarin the oral traditionsof the Balkans, is what Albert Lord has called the "ReturnSong" (see note 3). Probablya mythic reflex of originally Indo-European provenance, this story patternconcerns a hero separatedfrom his wife or fiancee, usually on their wedding night, and long absentfrom his home for some implicitor explicit martialreason(ElementA-Absence). Eitheralone or in company with a comrade, he then falls underthe controlof an enemy and languishes in captivityfor what is often a considerableperiodof time, deploringhis fate and hoping for release while suitorstest his wife's or fianc6e's fidelity at home (Elein with a female intermediary ment D-Devastation). After successful bargaining some way sympatheticto his cause, the hero then gains release and heads for his homeland(ElementR-Return). Therehe engages the suitorsusurpinghis goods and courtinghis wife, defeatingthem in ritualcombatand puttingthem to flight; he also tests his wife or fiancee by concealing his identitythroughdisguise and posing a riddle intendedto reveal her true actions and intentions(ElementRtRetribution).Finally, if his riddle has in fact proved her fidelity, a wedding (or takes place and the Returncycle "re-wedding" in the form of a rapprochement) is complete (ElementW-Wedding).6 The Odyssey Of course the most famousof ReturnSongs concernsthe 20-yearexile Odysof the Trojan seus, called away fromhis wife Penelopeby the Achaeanimperative War. Afterthe conquestat Troy, andin mythicallyanalogousfashionto the South Slavic initiatoryhero (Bynum 1968), he findshimself far fromhis home andfrom Penelope (Absence), the prisonerof Kalypso and Kirke and a luckless wanderer Ath(Devastation)before the grace of the Phaeaciansandthe divine intermediary of the ena accomplishhis passageto Ithaca(Return).Homer'sextendedrendering adventof the disguisedhero, the ritualbattleof wordsandathleticprowessagainst the suitors, the testing of Penelope, and the final revenge (Retribution) bring us solutionto the riddleof the oliveto the coda of the Odyssey:the world-righting the Weddingelement). The storyof Odysseusis fundamentree bed (structurally tally the storyof Return,and its deepestmeaningderivesfromthe integrityof this story pattern. By applying the methodology sketched above, we can begin to sense the resonanceof the Odyssey storyfor the audiencethatsaw fit to elevate its Homeric epitomizationto Panhellenic status (Nagy 1979:7ff.). As referencesto lost and
nostoi, or Returns,of otherancientGreekheroes attest, the original fragmentary audiencefor the work knew the Odysseynot as a fresh, Romanticbrachiation on the common literarystock but as a particular,focused instanceof a genericform. Fromcomparativeevidence we can reconstruct at least the basic outlinesof what their "reading" experience7musthave been, andthatreconstruction, as indicated above, also survives to us in moder oral traditions.In the multiformityof oral tradition, such an audience might well be entertainedby the specific shape the Odyssey story took, but they could never have failed to anchorany novel departuresin the firmgroundof the well-known story-formof Return.Whatevernominal shape the particular momentarydesign may have taken, the audience'sinterof it would be founded on priorand extratextualexperience. First and pretation is the foremost, Odyssey a song of Return;then it is a song of Odysseus' return; and then it is one version of a song of Odysseus' return. Unlike the usual situationwe know exclusively from the more familiarliteraryscenario, the extratextualcomponentin oral traditionis uniquelydynamic in the "reading" process. A novelist, for example, may make telling use of an assortmentof genres to convey a work differentand distinct from all works that precededit, but an oral poet is always and necessarilymaking(or remaking)his work in the image of all other works that constitutehis oral tradition.To put it moreexactly, he is fashioningone versionof one text in orderto point towardthe work that not only he but scores of otherpoets have also (re-)created,along with their audiences, as long as the oral traditionhas existed. In concert with his audience, which takes a much more active role in the makingof the work than do readersof literature(for example, Havelock 1963:145-164; Lord 1960:13-29; Foley 1977; Caraveli 1982), he establishes the textual librettoupon which each of the experiencedwork. Appeal to extraperson presentbases an apprehension textualauthorityis endemic in this process;withoutthe lifebloodof the wordhoard thatconstitutesan oral tradition,withoutits essential contribution of context, the co-createdtext would remainonly an elaborateset of stage directions.The gaps of indeterminacy,as Iser calls the uncharted areasof the textualmap, would resist aesthetically satisfactory solution; this much is only too apparentin the overinconsistenciesin the Iliad wroughtand sententiousattackson supposednarrative and Odyssey, evidence so some say of Homer's nodding. But with the appropriate extratextualcontext engaged, with access to the wordhoardopen and dynamic, such texts as the Odyssey take on whole new worlds of meaning. Most generally, there can be no "suspense" as to whether Odysseus will eventually shake off the wrathof Poseidon and restorethe peace and orderdisruptedby his absence; the resolutionof conflicts must be expected from the startbecause of the wisdom of traditionas expressedin the signal of the Returnpattern.With this largest of gaps closed, the "reader" can then proceed to the next level of complexity and realize, againfrom the start,thatthe sequence of Absence, Devastation, Return, Retribution,and Wedding is similarly to be narrative accoutrements of the type-scenes expected, along with the characteristic or themes that express those abstractions.One actively expects the imprisoned hero to bewail his fate, to bargainwith a female intermediary,to confront his
competitorsand wife in disguise, and so forth. All of these perceptionsare encouraged (even required)by the extratextualcontributionof oral tradition,the context that serves the "reader" as guide in following the textual map toward (re-) creationof the work. The Serbo-Croatian Return Song Since there remainsno textualrecordof the ReturnSong traditionfrom ancient Greekoutsideof a few fragments,we may summonas a comparand the welldocumented cognate traditionin South Slavic. Among the published material from the Milman ParryCollection one finds a greatmany examples of this same epic genre, such as the multipleversionsof TheCaptivityofDjulic Ibrahimamong the Novi Pazarsongs (see Parry,Lord, andBynum 1953-: vols. 1-2; Parks1981); on the basis of this and other evidence, it has been shown that the Returnmultiform exists as the core idea in literally hundredsof such poems (for example, Foley 1978, 1979a). As a group, these poems also help us to restorethe lost context of the Odysseyby illustrating the dynamicsof the traditional patternin South Slavic. As I have shown elsewhere (1980), the five-element sequence (AbsenceDevastation-Return-Retribution-Wedding)can take a surprising number of forms. In the recordedperformances of "Alagic Alija andVelagic Selim' as sung and dictatedby IbrahimBasic of the Stolac region in Hercegovina,for example, we view one permutationof the simplex pattern.Here not one but two Turkish heroes suffer in captivity as prisonersof the enemy Christianban, and their individual narrativepatternsdiverge to a degree. Alagic Alija managesto strike a and bargainwith his captor'swife the banica (the customaryfemale intermediary) earnsa month-longrelease in orderto return home, reconnoiter,andat least begin to set things right;afterhis time is up, however, he mustreenterprisonand again join his beleagueredcompatriot.Thus far the patternappearsto have been cut short, and, as Alagic Alija regresses to his formersorry state, there seems to be no reason to hope for furtherprogress. But his betrothed,one Fatima, and her companionAndjelijasoon arriveupon the scene and, disguisedas male warriors, accomplish the R and Rt elements for both captive heroes. The substitutesthus bringthe sequence towardclosure in the expected Weddingscene, and the cycle is complete. Anotherset of songs fromthe sameregion, this time sungby the guslar Mujo Kukuruzovic, illustrates another manifestation of the Return story pattern. Whetherthe hero in question be named Alagic Alija or Ograscevic Alija (and names are quite fluid throughoutoral epic tradition),the story proceeds along largely the same narrativepathway from imprisonmentand despairtoward release, revenge, and final union. Details may vary, such as the locale, the names of loyal retainersand conniving suitors, or even the identityof the marriagepartners whose ceremony the hero observes on the way home, but within limits the story is the same. At the crucialmomentof testinghis wife's or fiancee's fidelity, however, the narrativelurches off in an unexpecteddirection:she is in fact discoveredto have been unfaithful,andthe wrongedhusbandor fianceeimmediately
exacts his vengeance by cutting off her hands, killing her, and ridingoff to join the enemy to plan an attackon his own people. The second partof this two-part "song-amalgam" is then left the task of rightingthe balance of a world undone by ruptureof the Returnpattern.8 In their separateways both of these examples offer us evidence of the muland at the same time provide the opportunity to docutiformityof story-pattern ment the importantrole of context in the fleshingout of one particular song-text. Quite clearly, as we saw with the Odyssey, the momentumof the Returnpattern confers a special kind of unity on the individualperformance text, assistingin the work. of text into The Basic and Kukuperceptualprocess turning experienced ruzovic songs instance a unifying traditionalidea by synecdoche, summoning forth informationfrom the audience's experience to bridge the "gaps" of indeof the individualtext. More immediately,the terminacynecessarilycharacteristic particular,song-specific story content is rationalizedby the inherentwisdom of the Return cycle, so that Alagic Alija and Velagic Selim-although separated temporarily by the contractthatthe formerstrikeswith the banica and seemingly at the end of theirnarrative rope afterAlagic Alija's regressionto prisonandDevastation-are nonetheless sure to accomplish a final Return, Retribution,and Wedding. The question, in otherwords, is not at all what will happen;we know, genericallyat least, whatwill eventuallytakeplace. The questionamountsto how the expected will happen, how the fundamental traditional idea will take shape in this particular manifestation. In Kukuruzovic'ssongs we likewise know the end (or we thinkwe do) soon after the story opens; after all, the hero is describedas loudly bewailing his imprisonment,an act dependably,because metonymically,indicativeof the Return patternto follow. And from the banica's reportof the clamorto her husband,her conferencewith the prisoner,and the captive's release andjourney, the narrative appearsto be fulfilling its announcedpurposeand typically drawingits context extratextually.But at the pivotal testing scene the audience'sexpectationscrumble, for the Penelope figureis revealedto be a kindof SouthSlavic Klytaemnestra, and the way in which the text and traditionhave taughtus to interpret is shown to be false. Or is it? For what we discover is thatthe Weddingelement proves to be itself a multiform. From a synchronicpoint of view, the wife's fidelity means closure of the Returnpatternin an Odyssey-likesong, while infidelitymeanscontinuanceinto a second partor sequel. Kukuruzovicunwittinglyillustrated the acthreedistinctbut relatedvariants: curacyof this model by having in his repertoire (1) the usual sequence with closure in the W element, (2) a second song abouta hero's temporaryalliance with the enemy, and (3) a version of (1) linked to (2) by the hero's discovery of his wife's infidelity. Such is the natureof multiformity in South Slavic oral epic, and such is the contribution of traditional contextto the process of text becoming work. Other Narrative Journeys and the Map of Return: Marko Kraljevic and Musa the Highwayman Most of the publishedParry-Lord material,and indeedthe majorityof songs in the Collection, belong to a specific, quite identifiablepartof South Slavic oral
the Moslem epic. These songs, performed for the most partin Mosepic tradition: lem areasof whatis todayYugoslavia, constitutea tradition of complexnarratives featuringthe exploits of Turkishheroes, and evolve out of a socioculturalmilieu that encouragedtheir singing at considerablelength, often to thousandsof lines. An importantfactor in their developmentwas the religious institutionof Ramathe coffeehouses (kazan, a periodof one montheach year when men frequented for fane) each night and were entertainedby a guslar engaged by the proprietor the purpose. In orderto satisfy the demandsof this kind of ongoing audience,the Moslem singers developed and preserveda traditionof longer songs, and it was precisely this traditionthat Parrysought to recordfor potentialcomparisonwith Homer's lengthy epics (Lord 1960:14-17). Althoughwe have alreadyprofitedmuch andwill certainlycontinueto learn from this carefully drawncomparison,we should not forget thatMoslem epic is of oraltraditional in SouthSlavic;therearemany narrative only one manifestation more genres and subgenres, and our poetics of Serbo-Croatian oral verse will be completeonly when we have studiedandtakenaccountof the varietyandrichness of this oral tradition(see Foley 1979b and 1981a). As a furtherexample of the context in the faithfulinterpretation of oral narrative,I significanceof traditional turnnow to one of these genres outsidethe mainstream of Moslem epic-namely to the shorterpoems collected by Vuk StefanKaradzicfromthe Christian singing traditionin the 19th century.9 One of the more famous of these poems, Marko Kraljevic and Musa the reachesonly 281 lines andis in most formalrespectsquitetypical Highwayman,10 of the brief narrativein Christiantradition,the kind of poem that would by its of traditional genre allow memorizationand conscious manipulation patternsand phraseology. For while Lordhas rightlycontendedthatthe Moslem oral epic exists exclusively as a performanceentity or multiformthat is re-createdin each oralpoems even within version, we should also realize thatthereare indisputably the South Slavic traditionthat "violate" that "law" because theirgenre requirements admitthe kind of conscious artistrywe have too simplisticallyconfinedto literarytexts (see furtherRenoir 1976, 1981;Foley In Pressa). In this poem about MarkoKraljevic, then, we must acknowledgethe possibility thatthe guslar has in orderto furintentionallyincludedcertainelementsof phraseologyor narrative therhis personalaestheticdesign. He is withoutdoubtcomposing in the oral traditional mode, but with this apparentlyslight but far-reachingdifference: the shorterformatmakes it possible thatthe singer can memorizehis song and work " on it in his mind, treatingthe work as a kind of oral palimpsest. The song opens, very conventionally,in a tavernwith Musathe highwayman drinkingwine12 and boasting that he will take revenge on his tsar for failing to rewardnine yearsof fruitfulservice. Specifically,Musathreatens to close off both the ferryandthe roadthatpermitpassagealong the coast. Althoughthis may seem an idle threatand an impossible task, he succeeds both in fulfilling his boast and soon after in repelling the tsar's force of 3000 men sent to breakthe blockade. Withhis armydestroyedand his vizier returned tied to a horse, the tsarbegins the "13 which predictably bears highly traditional"search for a substitute/champion,
TRADITION ANDTHECOLLECTIVE TALENT 211
no fruit:many leave Stambolto fight Musa and recapture the tsar's territory,but none return.The prospectsfor resolving the situationlook very grim indeed. But at this point the vizier Cuprilicsuggests the services of the incomparable hero MarkoKraljevic,the only championwho mightbe able to defeatMusa. The tsarnot illogically assumesthatMarkohas died, since it has been threeyearssince his imprisonment,andTurkishtamniceor "jails," situatedbelow groundandfull of scorpions and snakes, are not renownedfor promotingtheir inhabitants'longevity. After a discussion, Cuprilic in fact produces Marko, albeit in woeful shape:his hair has grown out nearlyto the ground,his nails are as long as plowhas exacerbated shares, and the memla'4emanatingfrom the damp surroundings his alreadyill health. On being asked whetherhe will help the tsarto remedythe and prescribes situation, Markoreplies that he needs some time for recuperation for himself a diet of wine, plum brandy,lamb, and white bread. The tsar agrees to his demandsand all that Markorequestsis done for him. After three months the tsar grows impatientand asks his championwhether he is ready to meet Musa in single combat. The exchange then proceeds as follows: 105 Marko tsar: spoketo thehonorable branch "Bringme a drydogwood Nineyearsold fromthetopof thehouse,15 So thatI cansee whatmaybe possible." He brought himthedrydogwood branch. Thewoodsnapped intotwoandthree parts, Butno sapflowedout. "By God,tsar,it's notyet time!" So another month of dayspassed WhileMarko continued to mendhimself; Whenhe sawthathe wasready forcombat, He askedagainforthedrydogwood branch. thedogwood to Marko; Theybrought Whenhe grasped thetwigin hisrighthand, It snapped, useless,intotwoandthree parts Andtwodrops of sapleaped out. ThenMarko announced to thetsar: "It is time,tsar,forbattle."
Markograspedthe twig in his righthand;
110
115
120
With confidenceborn of a ritualtest, Markoproceedsto Novak the armorer to arrangefor special weapons and receives a magic sword that is forged while Markodrinkswine at a nearbytavern(as before a topographicindicationof border-crossingand implicitlyof upcomingmartialengagement).Novak indiscreetly reveals, however, that he once made a yet more powerful sword for Musa and immediately has his right arm amputatedfor that indiscretion. With his new weapon at the ready, Marko soon finds Musa and, after an exchange of insults, they commence a day-long strugglethat drawsto a close with Musa gaining the upperhand. As so often happens in the cycle of tales associatedwith his name, Marko then calls to his protectingvila, or mountainnymph;her response suffi-
ciently distractsMusa to allow Markoto deal him a stealthyand fatalblow. With his enemy laid open from waist to neck, Markonow sees thatthe fallen hero has threehearts,in the thirdof which resides a snakethat, remarkably enough, delivers Musa's eulogy. On these grounds, as well as on the basis of his own perceptions of the battle, Marko pronounceshis foe betterthan himself. Although he dutifullyenough bringsMusa's head to the tsarto fulfill theiragreement,his victory seems hollow, and his reportto the tsarlacks even the respectdemandedby protocol. The song closes quietly, with a terse couplet as epitaph:"Markowent off to white Prilip, / Musa stayed atop Kacanik." Withinthe Markocycle, and also withinthe poetic traditionas a whole, this is in its contentandtone an unusualsong. Clearlyenough, it belongs to thatchapter of the hero's mythic biographyin which he was captured by the enemy Turks and forced to serve the tsar, often againsthis own Christianpeople. This uneasy allegianceof hero and captor,which randirectlycounterto the prevailingenmity between Christianand Turkin the 16thcenturyand earlier,accountsfor some of the ambiguityof Marko'sheroic portrayal.When we addto this situationthe fact that Marko behaves (to put it mildly) idiosyncraticallythroughoutthe cycle of tales thatmemorializeshis adventures-often perpetrating suchunheroicdeeds as cholericallyrelieving a woman of her head or appendages,refusingto take up a challenge when confronted,and complainingquite openly of his problems-we how this tale might containas many suggestionsof qualified begin to understand or flawed heroismas of untaintedheroic apotheosis. So much for the quality and mood of MarkoKraljevicand Musa the Highwayman;but how are such intangiblesexpressedtangiblyin an idiom designedto researchand scholarship continueand preservethe telling of tales? Oralliterature method-its very raison have led us to believe that the strengthof the traditional rather thancreatingthemanew. Pard'etre-lies in following preexistingpatterns ticularly in Homeric studies, where such researchbegan, scholars lean toward on the basis of a limited numberof generic frames, and explicating the narrative lean strongly against admittingany text that looks "new" or "creative" to the have the imhallowed canon of traditional compositions. But here we apparently possible: a unique song that we know to have been composed within an oral tradition by a Serbian guslar. Once again, then, how and, to returnto our initial emphasis, in what kindsof units is the song composed? Perhapswe recognize alreadywhat seem to be eithervestiges of or scattered details associated with the ReturnSong pattern,even though the song itself is certainlynot a memberof the epic subgenreof Return.For example, Markohas been imprisonedfor a considerableperiod;when he emerges, he looks very much like hundredsof othercognate heroes who have long languishedin captivity. He before requirestime for barbering,eating and drinking,and generalrecuperation he can answer the tsar's call to rid the land of the threatrepresentedby Musa. Readers(or listeners)well versed in the ReturnSong andothertraditional patterns will also recognize more minor signals: the tsar's searchfor a substitute,a ubiquitous theme present in virtuallyall modes of epic in South Slavic; the mention of Marko'sbones rotting, always a concernor partof a threatin dealing with the
anotherubiquitoustheme, thatof arming imprisonedhero (cf. Foley 1978:7-8);16 the hero; and the verbal trickery, this time imaged in Marko's complaintto the vila, used by the hero in defeatinghis foe. As a generalprinciple,what confronts us is neither a wholly invented narrativenor anotherexample of an expectable whole, but rathera new storybased upona freshcombinationof highly traditional units. That is, while the quality, mood, and even sequence of actions may be construedas originalor individual,the primamateriathatconstitutethatquality, mood, and sequence are to be found serving myriad other narrativepurposes the survivingcorpusof South Slavic epic. throughout In termsof the methodologydescribedandexemplifiedabove, we encounter in Marko Kraljevic and Musa the Highwaymana narrativethat makes sense in contextscalled into play by the itself and drawsdeepermeaningfrom extratextual structuresthat make up the song. In orderto trackthroughthe story with somewe must make use of the thing approachingthe properdegree of understanding, ReturnSong map and of otherepic mapsthatthe guslar Podrugovichas provided for us. If we fail to recognize the importanceof these maps for our readingof the text, for our extrapolationof text to experiencedwork, then we fail to fulfill the readingimperative.Let us then rereada portionof the song, illustratinghow the process of logically construingthis oral traditionaltext dependscrucially on rewe have called readingsignals. cognizing the metonymicrepresentations After the reportof Musa's blockade and the defeat of the imperialarmy, the range of narrativeoptions narrows to the familiar "Search for a Substitute" theme. Absolutely predictably,the tsar's call for a championresults in a number of warriorswilling to try the renegadeMusa but none who is able to defeat him, and the Turkishsovereign is plunged yet deeper into despairthroughthis traditional device. At this point, precisely when the hero-to-bemagically turnsup in most versions of the theme, the tsar's vizier broachesthe possibilityof an imprisoned Christian(and thereforeenemy) hero, MarkoKraljevic.Thus it is that Podrugovic integratesthe "Search for a Substitute"theme, the imprisonedhero of the ReturnSong pattern,and the ambiguoussituationof the Christianenemy in the Turkishcamp at one and the same narrativenexus, and the result is resonant with predictiveovertones. First, since the searchhas reacheda dead end and then culminated in the stock "unconsideredpossibility," poetic traditionforecasts success for the designated individual, whoever he may be. Second, if this individual is still alive at the bottom of the hateful prison, and if he is released and broughtback to health, poetic traditionargues his ultimateReturnand Retribuwould prescribethat tion; it may be indirector slow in coming about,but tradition success will be his, whoever he may be. Against these sureties, that is, against the promiseof metonymicreadingsignals, we hearthatnot only is Markoa Christian captive, but he is also unlikely to have survivedhis three-yearincarceration. And even if he does live, the story argues, he may or may not be willing to serve his captor. Signals arethen addedto signals, as the woebegone Markoemergesfromhis cell to speak with the tsar and vizier. In the mannertypical of prisonersin Return Songs, his overgrown hair and nails image the long Absence and Devastation
throughwhich he has suffered, and his shrunkenbody is afflictedby the memla so characteristically a featureof Turkishprisonsin such songs. If this were a Return Song, the next major action would consist of the released hero's Returnto his homeland, with his bedraggledappearance serving as a disguise by means of which he could avoid recognitionwhile he tested the fidelityof his wife andcomdoes not follow this pattern,the Returnmap, with patriots.But while the narrative its carefully drawnand powerfully metonymic topography,directs the program and process of the story. The prisoner's appearance/disguise is only one more indicationthat he will accomplish some sort of Retribution,even if that revenge is undertaken for the sake of the enemy tsar. Marko's recuperation,aided by sustenancethat traditionmarksas ritualistic,17comes along well, but after three months the tsar learnsthat his substitute herois not yet ready. The exchangebetweenthe two figures(lines 105-123, translated above) illustratesthe mutualattraction between mythic patternand folkloristic detail, as Marko essentially aligns the annualvernal Returnwith his own; not, he says, until the sap flows in the branchesof the dogwood (and, symbolically, springhas once more arrived)will he ventureforthon the tsar'serrand.Or, to put it at once more immediatelyand more mythically, the flowing of the sap and resuscitationof life in the dogwood will image his recuperation from imprisonmentand the attackof the memla. When one considersAlbertLord's proposal is basedon the seasonalandsacralmythof the dying (1972) thatthe Returnpattern who returns to as well as the numeroussignals of both death and staglife, god nation surroundingthe prison and of life and revivificationsurrounding release from captivity,'8 it is easier to understand the power of the ReturnSong pattern imbeddedin this song and to sense how Marko's triumph,though characteristically qualified, is inevitable.19 In virtuallyall epic songs in South Slavic tradition,whetherwithin the Returngenre or not, the hero aboutto embarkon a quest goes throughthe requisite armingscene before departure,andthis storydoes not deviatefromthatstandard. Marko's armingconsists of a visit to Novak, the South Slavic equivalentof the GermanicWelund or ancient Greek Hephaistos, to procurea "special weapon" to the task (cf. Lord 1976). While thus far the visit echoes numerous appropriate with the smith otherarmingmotifs, the peculiarnatureof Marko'sconfrontation from expectationthe peculiarnatureof Marko's ademphasizes in its departure venture.The sword he receives from Novak is only second best to Musa's sword (a reflex of the rankingof heroes later made by Marko himself), and Marko's typically intemperateamputationof Novak's arm breaks the traditionalpattern once again. Workingwithin his tradition,and taking full advantageof its extratextual echoes, the singer Podrugovichas it both ways: once again, the ultimate message is that the hero will succeed, but the incongruityof detail promptsthe readerto doubtthat all will be broughtaboutin the usual way. Likewise, the verbaltrickeryentailedin Marko'sconversationwith the vila draws contextual significance from the traditionas a relatively common metowe see in many tales nym. Implying the kind of Athena-Odysseusprotectorate associated with his heroic enterprises,Markocomplains aloud that his guardian
has not fulfilledher pledge to help him in his time of need. And if we areeffective bond betweenpreternatural female ally "readers," we must agree:the traditional andthe hero she has swornto protectdoes seem to be violatedby the vila's chiding Markofor enteringa fight on Sundayandby her observationthatthe two-againstone situationhe is requestingwould be unfair.But, as we shouldby this time have come to expect, extratextual(traditional) meaningwill out-one way or another. One line after her apparentrefusal to enter the fray she asks "Where are your snakes in hiding?" Only Marko and those familiarwith his cycle of tales know thathe carriestwo daggershiddenin his belt, and, while Musagazes at the clouds and wonders about the disembodied voice from above, Markouses his "secret snakes" to wound his adversarymortally. The vila does indeed fulfill her role as helpmate, albeit duplicitously, and thatwhich traditionhas taughtus to expect is in fact broughtabout. Whatis more, Podrugovic'saestheticcontrolis so surethat the guje, or snakes, foreshadowthe viper thatwill awake in Musa's thirdheartto deliver his eulogy. In summary,then, in MarkoKraljevicand Musa the Highwaymanwe have an example of an apparentlyuntraditional tale told quite traditionally.Although the superficialstory may seem (and is) virtuallyuniquein SouthSlavic narrative, the elements or units that make it up are ubiquitousin tale-telling. Each unitwhether the imprisonment,appearance/disguise,and release from captivity associated with the ReturnSong or the themes of searchingfor a substitute/chamthat are found in many pion, arming, and intercessionby a female preternatural types of songs-must be understoodas having not only the textualshapeencounteredin this particular the extratextual song but also, and muchmoreimportantly, resonanceof recurrencein otherperformances the audience'sexperithroughout ence. By metonymic reference to the wordhoardof tradition,each patterncalls into play an expectable dynamics, against which generic background the particular individualdramais played out. Actions in this or any othersong do not take place in an aesthetic or mythic vacuum, but ratherin the fertile context of traditional expectation. Podrugovic actively uses this naturaltension of generic and specific to poetic advantage, as he qualifiesthe hero's inevitablefate by making his expected passage from one situationto the next extremelyand unusuallydifficult, so that Marko's superficiallyuncertainfuturereflectsquite sensitively the in the Christian ambiguityof his forced service to the enemy. In this oralnarrative traditionas recordedby Vuk Karadzic, we have a fine illustrationof how aesthetics and oral traditionalstyle, far from being mutuallyexclusive as arguedby so many scholars, can merge to producememorableworks of art.20 Epilogue: Some Implications for Other Traditional Structures If patternssuch as the ReturnSong prove active in the reader'sextrapolation of text to experiencedwork throughtheir metonymicreferenceto tradition,is it not logical that other traditionalstructures or units should operatesimilarly?Or, to put the same matteranotherway, should not theformula and theme, identified above as, respectively, the phraseologicalandnarrative buildingblocks of the oral
realityof the wordhoard by poet's tectonic scheme, also conjurethe extratextual to discuss these possibilitiesat synecdoche?Althoughit would not be appropriate any length in the present study, I would like to close with a few remarkson the or Receptionalistmethodologyto otherlevels of extension of the reader-response traditionalstructure. First, it seems clear that the theme, which as Lordhas shown is both a unit in itself and a multiform appropriateto many sequences in traditionalsong (1960:68-98), brings with it a wealth of extratextualreference. Such a textual datum, when properlyperceived againstthe subjectiveexperienceof an oral narrative tradition,forecasts both immediateand long-rangedevelopments.Whenever, for example, we find a captive cmilinjeor "shouting, lamenting"in prison in South Slavic epic, we can be relatively certain that his loud and continued racketwill keep the captor'sson (andusuallysole heir)fromsleepingandnursing, and that this turn of events will promptthe captor's wife to take desperatemeasures in orderto convince her husbandto aid in silencing the noise. By the same token, this shoutingalso augursthe Return,Retribution,and Weddingof the imprisonedhero, however untowardhis presentsituationmay seem. The disparity betweenthese genericinevitabilitiesandstory-specificdevelopmentsis bothnominal and functional, since traditional expectationswill somehow obtainand since our engagement as "readers" co-creatingthe work from the text may be construedas our activity in bridgingthe gaps between the singer's generic thematic patternand the idiosyncrasiesof the presentnarrative. formulaand its Second, the old and bothersomeproblemof the noun-epithet the illuminated can be for by understanding phraseological meaning possibilities metonymas likewise a key to the wordhoard.We need not settle for eitherof the two conventionalexplanationsof such combinationsas "swift-footed Achilles" foror "blameless Aegisthus," that is, eitherfor the view thatsuch noun-epithet mulas are simply metricalfillers with no special contentotherthanthe personor opinion that they are somehow contextgod they name or for the contradictory sensitive. Rather we can recognize that a phrase like "swift-footed Achilles" calls to narrative prominencenot just one featureof the hero but his entireheroic personality. By synecdoche, by referenceto tradition,the effect of this kind of recurrent phrase is to epitomize the mythic identityof Achilles in, as it were, a or code, and a code pregnantwith extratextual shorthand meaning. Whetherthe Achaeanhero is racing afoot or sulking in his tent, the formulais universallyapplicable-not because it bearsonly a dilutedgenericmeaningor can somehowbe made to resonate in immediatecontext, but because the heroic identity it metonymically summons is always and everywhere applicableand active. We read such "counters" best when we recognize their dynamic role in the traditional networkof ideas and actions (see furtherFoley In Press b, In Press c). All of the examplescited above, then, pointtowardessentiallythe same conmust be addressednot narrative clusion: namely, thatthe units of oral traditional as objective entities complete in themselvesbut as necessarilyincompletecues to in the tale-tellingprobe contextualizedby an audience's subjectiveparticipation cess. Withoutthat subjectiveparticipation,itself the productof priorexperience
with other performances, the gaps between generic pattern and story-specific details cannot be closed, simply because the "reader" will not interpret the present story against the background of the pattern that both diachronically and synchronically gives it life and meaning. Once these gaps are made apparent by an acquaintance with the extratextual significance of such structures, the reader's imperative is to solve the riddle of closing them. In the process, of course, he becomes engaged in faithful interpretation of the text, that is, in making that text into an experienced work. And that process, as we have seen, operates on all levels as a general phenomenon of interpretation: the story-pattern provides a map for construing the narrative as a whole, the theme forecasts further developments both immediate and long-range, and the noun-epithet formula reaches far beyond its metrical slot to the mythic identity of its phraseological designate. In this way all such units find completion only outside of the nominal texts in which we meet them, and consequently our successful reading of traditional units and the works they embody depends crucially on our own extratextual experience.2' But with a knowledge of the oral narrative tradition we are studying, and with the realization that the ultimate meaning of unit and work lie outside the text in the collectivity of the wordhoard, we can indeed embark on a faithful reading of an oral traditional text, one that does justice to the many-layered and resonant work of art.
Notes 'Foran introductory historyof these issues and a systematicbibliography,see Foley 1985, which containsover nineteenhundreditems in more than90 languageareasthrough1982. The bibliographywill be updatedannuallyin the thirdnumberof the journalOral Tradition. 2Fora bibliographyon studies of story patternand the ReturnSong, see Foley 1980:174, n. 5, to which should be added Foley 1979a and Parks 1981. In regardto this and other multiformtale-types, Lord (1969:18) states: "My basic assumptionis thatin oral tradition thereexist narrativepatternsthat, no matterhow much the storiesbuilt aroundthem seem to vary, have great vitality and function as organizingelements in the composition and transmissionof oral story texts." The Returnsequence, to be describedand exemplified below, is one of the most common of these patterns. 3The most thorough available summaryof the early Parry-Lord collection trips is Lord 1951. The materialthey recordedhas been deposited in the Milman ParryCollection of OralLiterature at HarvardUniversity, and selections have been publishedin Parry,Lord, and Bynum 1953-. Vuk Stefan Karadzicpublished the first five volumes of his Srpske narodnepjesme between 1841 and 1862; they are convenientlyavailablein the 1969 edition by VladanNedic. 4Fora survey of the early stages of this field, see Mailloux 1977. Important contributions include many works by Hans RobertJauss and Wolfgang Iser; among those most readily availableare Jauss 1974 and Iser 1971, 1974a, 1974b. 5He describes such gaps as "the 'unwritten'part of a text [that] stimulatesthe reader's creativeparticipation"(1971:280).
218 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY 6Onthe significanceof the ritualcontest involved, see Ong 1981 on the "agonisticnoetic" and its culturalfunction. As will be explained below, the Returnsequence need not end with ElementW, thatis, with the hero discoveringhis wife's fidelityandtheirconsequent he may find that she has been unfaithfulandrespondin quite anotherway. On remarriage; this second possibility, see Foley 1980:134-136. 7Fromthis point on I use the term "reading" and its relatedforms to indicatea subjective participant's apprehensionof a work, whetherthat work be experiencedin the form most conventionalfor us (a book or perhapseven a learnedjournal)or in the form of oral performance, as was the case for the Homeric poems-at least originally. See furtherLord 1960, Ong 1982, and Foley 1977. 8Kukuruzovic's recordedrepertoirereveals a single-partsong equivalentto Part I of the amalgamand anotherequivalentto PartII. of comparison,see Foley 1981b and 1983. 9Fora discussion of the parameters 'lMarkoKraljevic i Musa Kesedzija, text from Karadzic 1841, vol. 2, no. 66 (pp. 251mine. 256); English translation "I note briefly that anotherdifferencebetween this type of shorterChristiansong and the Moslem epic of Basic and Kukuruzovi6,in additionto the possibility of what we might call "sophisticated" artisticcraft in the Christiangenre, is thatthe longer song's function as what Eric Havelock has called the "tribalencyclopedia" of culturalattitudes,beliefs, and so on could not be performed(to anythingresemblingthe same degree)by the shorter song. t2Theopening scene in a tavern, markedby the first-lineformula "Vino pije X" ("X is/ was drinkingwine"), serves as the beginning of countless songs in both Christianand Moslem epic tradition.Far from being a static commonplace,however, such a scene imhorizon. plies importantaction on the narrative such a search is mountedby a leaderin severe trouble, and only after con'3Customarily ventional methods for defeating an adversaryhave failed. Many prospectivechampions answer the call, and all are defeated by the opponent. After the potentialsubstitutesare on the scene and, through exhausted,an unwittingor at least unexpectedindividualappears some sort of transformation, proves worthyto take up the gauntlet. 14Benson (1971) defines memla as "humidity" or "stale air," and Recnik srpskohrvatskoga knjizevnogjezika as "vlaga; vlazan, usmajaovazduh" or "dampness;moist, stale air," and metaphoricallyas "nezdravnaduhovna atmosfera, ucmalost" or "unhealthy vaporthat spiritualatmosphere,languor." The memla is understoodas a disease-bearing emanatesfrom the dankbottomof the Turkishcell, and shouldbe comparedwith the Serbian folk concept of the nine ill winds thatbear a varietyof maladies(see KerewskyHalpern and Foley 1978).
15Thatis, the top of the house as opposed to the bottom of the prison, where the memla
originates.
16Thus Svetozar Koljevic's (1980:196-197) argumentthat "the descriptionof Marko's
'rottingbones' in the prison comes from the story about 'Akir the Wise' which was well knownin Serbianmedievalliterature"is bothcorrectin pointingto an analogandmistaken in treatingthatanalog as the uniquesource. In the largercontext, this notionof a prisoner's
TRADITION ANDTHECOLLECTIVE TALENT 219 and is thereforenot limitedto one specific avatarof a much bones rottingis quite traditional more generic and widespreadstory-form.The same may be said of Koljevic's claim that the highly traditionalbarberingscene constitutesevidence thatthe poet Tesan Podrugovic "is telling his story-tongue in cheek-with greatwarmthand zest" (p. 197). 7EspeciallyMarko's familiar wine, which is on occasion sharedwith his faithful horse an adventureor battle. Saracbefore undertaking '8Aprisoner'sincarceration, for example, is often followed by an elegiac passagein which he lamentsthat he will not be able to perceive the seasonalexchangeof winterand spring, while his release customarily depends upon a female intermediary(often referredto as najrodjenamajka, "most related mother," a term describingsynthetickinship) and aphealing, grooming, nourishing,and armingscenes. propriate '9Weshould addthatSouth Slavic folkloreeverywhereassociatesthe dogwood with health andfertility. As noted in S. KuliSicet al. (1970:110, translation mine), "It is believed that to be is with health. wish firmness connected 'healthyas dogwood.' It dogwood's People is used as an amulet against spells and sickness. On St. George's Day people gird thembeforedawn selves with reed anddogwood. . . . In some sections of Bosnia, on Christmas in of branches the meal. Elsewhere color or decorate include they they fragments dogwood the Christmascake with dogwood or olivewood, and some put a small piece in the cake, believing that whoever finds it in his slice will be healthy. Dogwood, or dren, is also used to produce 'living fire,' which is thoughtto have the power to purifyandprovideprotection from sickness." the origin of the "context-sensitivity" argument,see Calhoun(1935) and Parry's 20For response (1937). Among the most representativeof contributionson the same issue are Amory Parry1973 and Vivante 1982. Cf. Foley 1983.
2'For
a new way to "complete" the text and point towardthe work, see the discussion of computerizededitions in Foley 1984.
References Cited
Amory Parry,Anne 1973 Blameless Aegisthus:A Study of AMYMflN and OtherHomericEpithets.Leiden: E. J. Brill. Bauml, FranzH. 1980 Varieties and Consequences of Medieval Literacy and Illiteracy. Speculum 55:237-265. Benson, Morton 1971 Serbocroatian-English Dictionary. Collab. with Biljana Sljivic-Simsic. Philadelphia:Universityof PennsylvaniaPress. Bynum, David E. 1968 Themes of the Young Hero in Serbocroatian Oral Epic Tradition.Publications of the Moder LanguageAssociation 83:1296-1303. Calhoun, George M. 1935 The Art of Formula in Homer-EITEA rTTEROENTA. Classical Philology 30:215-227. Caraveli, Anna 1982 The Song Beyond the Song: Aesthetics and Social Interactionin Greek Folksong. Journalof AmericanFolklore95:129-158.
220 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY Foley, John Miles 1977 The TraditionalOralAudience. BalkanStudies 18:145-154. 1978 The TraditionalStructureof Ibro Basic's "Alagic Alija and Velagic Selim." Slavic and East EuropeanJournal22:1-14. 1979a Narrativityin Beowulf, the Odyssey, and the Serbo-Croatian ReturnSong. In of the IXth of the International Literature AssoProceedings Congress Comparative ciation. ZoranKonstantinovic,WarrenAnderson,and WalterDietze, eds. Pp. 295301. Innsbruck: Universityof Innsbruck. 1979b Epic and Charmin Old English and Serbo-Croatian OralPoetry. Comparative Criticism2:71-92. 1980 Beowulf and TraditionalNarrativeSong: The Potentialand Limits of Comparison. In Old English Literature in Context:Ten Essays. John D. Niles, ed. Pp. 117136, 173-178. Londonand Totowa, NJ: Brewerand Rowman& Littlefield. 198la OralTexts, TraditionalTexts: Poetics and CriticalMethods. Canadian-American Slavic Studies 15:122-145. 198lb Umetnosti tradicijau srpskoji staroengleskoj narativnoj poeziji. Knjizevnaistorija 14:3-24. 1983 LiteraryArt and OralTraditionin Old EnglishandSerbianPoetry. Anglo-Saxon England 12:183-214. 1984 EditingOralEpic Texts: Theory and Practice.Text 1:75-94. in Context. J. M. Foley, In Press a The Oral Tradition in Literature: Interpretation ed. Columbia:Universityof MissouriPress. In Press b Reading the Oral TraditionalText: Aestheticsof Creationand Response. In CurrentIssues in Oral Literature Research:A Memorialfor MilmanParry.J. M. ed. OH: Slavica. Columbus, Foley, In Press c Formula in Yugoslav and Comparative Folk Epic:Structure andFunction. Bealoideas. Havelock, Eric A. Harvard 1963 Prefaceto Plato. Cambridge: UniversityPress. 1982 The LiterateRevolution in Greece and Its CulturalConsequences. Princeton: PrincetonUniversityPress. In LanguageandThoughtin EarlyGreek 1983 The LinguisticTaskof the Presocratics. 7-82. ed. Kevin LaSalle, IL: The Hegeler Institute. Robb, Pp. Philosophy. Hormann,Kosta, ed. 1888-89 Narodnepjesme muslimanau Bosni i Hercegovini. 2 vols. Zagreb:Matica Hrvatska. Iser, Wolfgang 1971 Indeterminacyand the Reader's Response in Prose Fiction. In Aspects of Narrative. J. Hillis Miller, ed. Pp. 1-45. New York:ColumbiaUniversityPress. in Prose Fictionfrom Bunyan 1974a The ImpliedReader:Patternsof Communication to Beckett. Baltimore:JohnsHopkinsUniversityPress. 1974b The Reading Process: A PhenomenologicalApproach.In New Directions in LiteraryHistory. Pp. 125-145. Baltimore:JohnsHopkinsUniversityPress. Jauss, Hans Robert 1974 LiteraryHistory as a Challengeto LiteraryTheory. ElizabethBenzinger, transl. In New Directionsin LiteraryHistory. Pp. 11-41. Baltimore:JohnsHopkinsUniversity Press. Karadzic,Vuk Stefan, coll. and ed.
TRADITION ANDTHECOLLECTIVE TALENT 221 1841- Srpskenarodnepjesme. VladanNedic, ed. Belgrade:Prosveta.(Reprinted1969, Belgrade:Prosveta.) Kelber, WernerH. 1983 The Oraland the WrittenGospel: The Hermeneutics of SpeakingandWritingin the Synoptic Tradition,Mark, Paul, and Q. Philadelphia: FortressPress. Kellogg, RobertL. 1974 Oral Literature.New LiteraryHistory5:55-66. KerewskyHalpern,BarbaraFoley, and JohnMiles Foley 1978 The Power of the Word:Healing Charmsas an OralGenre. Journal of American Folklore91:903-924. Koljevic, Svetozar 1980 The Epic in the Making. Oxford:ClarendonPress. Kulisic, Spiro, et al. 1970 Srpskimitoloski recnik. Belgrade:Nolit. Lord, Albert B. 1951 Yugoslav Epic Folk Poetry. International Folk Music Journal3:57-61. 1960 The Singer of Tales. Cambridge:HarvardUniversity Press. (Reprinted1968, New York:Atheneum.) 1969 The Theme of the Withdrawn Hero in Serbo-Croatian OralEpic. Prilozi za knjizevnost, jezik, istorijui folklor 35:18-30. 1972 The Effect of the TurkishConqueston BalkanEpic Tradition.In Aspects of the Balkans: Continuity and Change. Henrik Birbaum and Speros Vryonis, eds. Pp. 298-318. The Hague: Mouton. 1976 The TraditionalSong. In Oral Literatureand the Formula. BenjaminA. Stolz and RichardS. Shannon, eds. Pp. 1-15. Ann Arbor:Centerfor Coordination of Ancient and Moder Studies. Mailloux, Steven 1977 Reader-ResponseCriticism?Genre 10:413-31. Marjanovi6,Luka, ed. 1898 Hrvatskenarodnepjesme. Vols. 3-4. Zagreb:MaticaHrvatska. Nagy, Gregory 1979 The Best of the Achaeans:Conceptsof the Hero in ArchaicGreek Poetry. Baltimore:Johns HopkinsUniversityPress. Ong, Walter 1967 The Presence of the Word:Some Prolegomenafor Culturaland Religious History. New Haven: Yale University Press. (Reprinted1970, New York: Simon and Schuster;1981, Minneapolis:Universityof MinnesotaPress.) 1981 Fighting for Life: Contest, Sexuality, and Consciousness. Ithaca:Cornell University Press. 1982 Oralityand Literacy:The Technologizingof the Word. Londonand New York: Methuen. Parks, WalterWard 1981 Generic Identityand the Guest-HostExchange:A Study of ReturnSongs in the Homeric and Serbo-Croatian Traditions.Canadian-American Slavic Studies 15:2441. Parry,Milman 1937 About Winged Words. Classical Philology 32:59-63. Parry,Milman, AlbertB. Lord, and David E. Bynum
222 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY 1953- Serbo-Croatian Heroic Songs (Srpskohrvatke junacke pjesme).Vols. 1-4, 6, 14. Cambridge:HarvardUniversity Press; Belgrade:SerbianAcademy of Sciences (copublishers,vols. 1 and 2). Renoir, Alain 1976 OralTheme and WrittenTexts. NeuphilologischeMitteilungen77:337-346. 1981 Oral-Formulaic Context:Implicationsfor the Comparative Criticismof Mediaeval Texts. In Oral Traditional A Festschriftfor AlbertBates Lord, 2d ed. Literature: J. M. Foley, ed. Columbus,OH: Slavica. Recnik srpskohrvatskoga knjizevnogjezika 1967 Novi Sad and Zagreb:MaticaSrpskaand MaticaHrvatska.(Reprinted1982.) Segal, CharlesP. 1982 Tragedie,oralitd,ecriture.VincentGiroud,Frenchtransl.In Genealogiesde l'ecriture,(special issue) Poetique50:131-154. Vivante, Paolo 1982 The Epithetsin Homer:A Study in Poetic Values. New Haven:Yale University Press.

Foley Tradtion and Collective Talent

Enviado por

Dados do documento

Direitos autorais

Formatos disponíveis

Compartilhar este documento

Compartilhar ou incorporar documento

Opções de compartilhamento

Você considera este documento útil?

Este conteúdo é inapropriado?

Direitos autorais:

Formatos disponíveis

Foley Tradtion and Collective Talent

Enviado por

Direitos autorais:

Formatos disponíveis

Tradition and the Collective Talent: Oral Epic, Textual Meaning, and Receptionalist Theory Author(s): John Miles

TRADITIONAND THE COLLECTIVE TALENT 205

ANTHROPOLOGY 206 CULTURAL

TRADITIONAND THE COLLECTIVE TALENT 207

TRADITIONAND THE COLLECTIVE TALENT 209

TRADITION ANDTHECOLLECTIVE TALENT 211

TRADITIONAND THE COLLECTIVE TALENT 213

TRADITIONAND THE COLLECTIVE TALENT 215

TRADITIONAND THE COLLECTIVE TALENT 217

Você também pode gostar