This book aims to provide an analytical study of the sources, the art and the presentation of oral, or spoken, poetry. Paul Zumthor, a literary theorist, discusses the development of oral poetry from antiquity to the present in all its aspects: the forms of oral poetry; the epic in the West, Africa and other parts of the globe; styles of performance across the world; roles played in oral poetry (the poet as interpreter, the listeners, the variable duration of oral poetry in time and space, etc.); and oral ritual actions from archaic times to the present.

Book Information
ISBN 9780816617258
Author Paul Zumthor
Format Paperback
Page Count 280
Imprint University of Minnesota Press
Publisher University of Minnesota Press