Understanding McLuhan/Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso/pc/mcluhan.dxr/08239_Field_TCGG T4.txt

Text File | 1996-04-10 | 940b | 16 lines

*     The present volume is in many respects complementary to
The Singer of Tales  by Albert B. Lord. Professor Lord has
continued the work of Milman Parry, whose Homeric studies had
led him to consider how oral and written poetry naturally
followed diverse patterns and functions. Convinced that the
poems of Homer were oral compositions, Parry “set himself the
task of proving incontrovertibly if it were possible, the oral
character of the poems, and to that end he turned to the study
of the Yugoslav epics.” His study of these modern epics was, he
explained, “to fix with exactness the form  of oral story
poetry. . . . Its method was to observe singers working in a
thriving tradition of unlettered song and see how the form of
their songs hangs upon their having to learn and practise their
art without reading and writing.” (1)

     Professor Lord’s book, like the studies of Milman Parry, is