"This volume is the masterpiece of Chao Gejin, one of the best-known Chinese scholars of Epic studies, representing his most influential works on the paradigm shift of the Epic across the twentieth century. The discussion ranges from Homeric and Indo-European epics to renewed discoveries of age-old African and Asian epics. The author details developments in research from Parry and Lord's work on Homeric epics and Serbo-Croatian oral poetry to his own research on the Mongol heroic epic. The book traces the formation of theoretical systems such as Oral Formulaic Theory, Ethnopoetics and Performance Theory, and ends with the author's explorations of the 20th-century Mongolian bard Arimpil's singing of his native epic poetry. By combining Chinese traditions and Western theories and methods to demonstrate the fundamentally oral nature of the Homeric epic, Chao brings to light the poetic richness of the still-living Mongol oral epic tradition. Students and scholars of epic studies, literature, folklore and anthropology will find this an essential reference"--
This volume charts the development of the genre over the course of the twentieth century, traces the formation of theoretical systems, and introduces the author's own explorations of the 20th-century Mongolian bard Arimpils singing of his native epic poetry.
Part I Critical Reflections on Epic Studies.
1. Homer to Arimpil: The
Pardigm Shift in International Epic Studies.
2. The History of Epic Research.
3. Current Issues in Epic Research.
4. John Miles Foley and Recent Research
Trends on Oral Traditions. 5 Gregory Nagy: From the Homeric Question to
Homeric Questions.
6. Lauri Honko: The Identity Function of Epic Poetry. Part
II Theories and Methods of Oral Poetics.
7. Oral Poetics and the Oral
Formulaic Theory.
8. Field Investigations of Oral Epic Transmission.
9. Oral
Poetics and Chinese Epic Research: Interview with the Author.
10. Types of
Oral Epic Texts: A Mongol Case Study.
11. Returning to the Voice: Textual
research of Oral Epics as a Starting Point.
12. How Long is Long: Epic
Length. Part III Indigenous Research on Mongolian Oral Poetics.
13. Mongolian
Oral Epic Poetry.
14. The Oirat Epic Cycle of Jangar.
15. Analysis of
Mongolian Epic Formulae.
16. Analysis of Mongolian Epic Prosody. Part IV
Comparative Study of Four Epic Traditions.
17. Challenges in Comparative Oral
Epic (Co-authored with Miles Foley)
Chao Gejin is a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Being a folklorist and literary critic, he focuses on folkloristics and literature, oral traditions in particular.
