Treść książki
Przejdź do opcji czytnikaPrzejdź do nawigacjiPrzejdź do informacjiPrzejdź do stopki
26
I.TheMethodologicalBackground
ancebyanfloralpoet”,meaningonewhocomposesthepoemduringthe
performancewiththeuseofformulae,butwithnorecallingofprelearned
material;thusthenotionexcludesanysortofmemorizationontheone
hand,andfreeimprovisation(understoodhereascomposingduringthe
performance,butwithouttheformulae)ontheother(cf.Lord1985:
313-337).AlthoughLordagreesthattheexistenceofformulaicstructures
mayindicatepreviousoraltraditionofthegenre(cf.Lord1990:392),he
alsostressesthatoutsidethepurelyoralcompositiononecannotspeakof
theoralformulaebecausewhattheyrepresentisinherentlyboundwith
theparticularmethodofcomposition,whichcannotberecreatedinthe
contextwhichiscontaminatedbyhoweversmalladoseofliteracy(cf.Lord
1990:45-46).ThusLordrejectsanynotionofafltransitionaltext”(cf.Lord
1990:392)andtreatstheoralandliterateculturesasmutuallyexclu-
sive.
Thisnotionofasimplebinarismbetweentherespectivemodeswas
challengedbyscholarssuchasJanZiolkowsky,orFranzH.Bäuml,who
arguedthatthereexistintermediatestagesbetweenthetwooppositepoles
wherethetworespectivemodescoincideasisthecasewithimprovisation,
recitation,orreadingaloud.Probablythemostcomprehensivediscussion
oftheissuewasofferedbyBäuml,whoaddressedthedifficultiesfacing
onewhenanalysingwrittentextswhicharepresumedtohaveoriginated
intheoraltradition,orelsewereinfluencedtoavaryingdegreebysuch
atradition,whichcannot,however,bestudiedatfirsthand.
ThusBäumlarguedthat,whilealloralcompositionsareformulaic,not
allformulaiccompositionsareinfactoral,hencetheoralformulaefunc-
tioninthewrittencompositionsasflsymptomsofthemechanismoforal
composition”,notsymptomsoforalcompositionitself(cf.Bäulm1985:
36-38).Hence,whileoralformulaeinanoraltextprovidealinkwiththe
culturalmemoryandtradition,inawrittentexttheymayfunctionas
stylisticdevices,referringtoaspecific–oraltypeoftext,andoraltradi-
tion(cf.Bäuml1985:38-42).
Anotherinterestingperspectiveofferedonthere-evaluationoftheLord
andParrytheorywasthatofD.G.Millerinhis1985articleTowards
aNewModelofFormulaicCompositionwherehepresentedacognitive
modeloftenmajorcharacteristicsofanorallycomposedtext,whichsought
tolinkstrictlytechnical,ormetrical,aspectsofformulaicpoeticcomposi-
tiontoissueslikethenarrativepatterns(cf.Miller1985:359-375).
AveryimportantfigureinthecontextofthisdiscussionisthatofPaul
Zumthor.Zumthor’swork,whichaimsataholisticdefinitionofthenature
