Author Description
Milman Parry, who died in 1935 while a young assistant professor at Harvard, is now considered one of the leading classical scholars of this century. Yet Parry's articles and French dissertations--highly original contributions to the study of Homer--have until now been difficult to obtain. The Making of Homeric Verse for the first time collects these landmark works in one volume together with Parry's unpublished M.A. thesis and extracts from his Yugoslavian journal, which contains notes on Serbo-Croatian poetry and its relation to Homer. Adam Parry, the late son of the scholar, has translated the French dissertations, written an introduction on the life and intellectual development of his father, and provided a survey of later work on Homer conducted in Parry's glorious tradition.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
This volume investigates the oral-formulaic nature of Homeric epic poetry by examining the structural parallels between ancient Greek verse and living South Slavic oral traditions. Milman Parry, a pioneering classical scholar, utilized his extensive fieldwork in Yugoslavia to challenge long-standing assumptions about the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey. By analyzing the repetition of epithets and formulaic phrases, Parry argued that Homeric verse was the product of an oral tradition rather than a literate author. This collection serves as a comprehensive record of his methodology and intellectual development.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- A collection of Parry's original articles and French dissertations on Homeric composition.
- Primary source material from Parry's Yugoslavian field journals regarding Serbo-Croatian oral poetry.
- An unpublished M.A. thesis detailing the early development of his oral-formulaic theory.
- An introductory biographical survey by Adam Parry documenting the scholar's life and the subsequent influence of his research.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Scholars and classicists recognize this volume as the foundational text for understanding the oral-formulaic theory in Homeric studies. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which remains essential for anyone studying the mechanics of ancient epic poetry.
Page Count:
483
Publication Date:
1971-01-01
Publisher:
Clarendon Press
ISBN-10:
0198141815
ISBN-13:
9780198141815
History
Poetry
Literary Criticism
Academic
Homer
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