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The Singer of Tales in Performance. By John Miles Foley. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995. Pp. xviii + 236. Notes, bibliography, index. $31.95 cloth, $15.95 paper.
John Miles Foley is directly in the scholarly traditions that descend from Albert Lord and Fr. Walter Ong. He knew the late Professor Lord quite well and is in continuous touch with Fr. Ong. And he is intimate with their work. In The Singer of Tales in Performance it shows: having mastered the thought of both, he strikes out on his own in fascinating new ways. This is a learned book in which the author, known to have command of oral formulaic theory (he is the author of The Theory of Oral Composition) and of orality theory, expands and extends those horizons. He applies performance theory to his subject with impressive results.
This is not a rehash of old ideas brought to bear on tired subjects. Foley has gone beyond his mentors in suppleness and content. The result is a book that answers many questions left open by The Singer of Tales by considering...