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New Directions in Oral Theory: Essays on Ancient and Medieval Literatures. Edited by Mark C. Amodio. (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2005. Pp. ? + 341, acknowledgments, introduction, bibliography. $40.00 cloth)
This well-edited volume of eleven essays by a mix of well- and lesser-known scholars provides not merely, as I first mistakenly expected, a review of recent applications of the Parry-Lord theory of oral-formulaic composition (Foley 1988), but rather an intriguing glimpse of a number of ways in which the oralliterary nexus might be examined in texts for which only a written form exists. After a short introduction, in which the editor Mark C. Amodio lays out a useful, concise (remarkably restrained given his apparent knowledge of and passion for the field) survey of the development of scholarship in oral studies, the essays demonstrate a wide range of approaches to texts in Greek, Latin, Old English, Middle English, and (most unusually, but extremely welcome for oral theory) Middle Welsh.
This volume is not particularly aimed at folklorists, but many folklorists - not just those working in oral theory, folklore and literature, or medieval folklore will find it both interesting and useful. It will be especially helpful for those who have not kept up on recent developments and still think of oral theory in the limited terms of Parry-Lord; it is, in fact, quite exciting to see the array of current approaches, from counting formulae...