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Spontaneity and Tradition: A Study in the Oral Art of Homer by Michael N. Nagler offers a groundbreaking reappraisal of the Iliad and the Odyssey through the lens of oral poetics. Building on the work of Milman Parry and Albert Lord, Nagler demonstrates how Homer's epics are best understood as oral-dictated performances that balance inherited formulas with the poet's spontaneous artistry. Rather than viewing formulas and type-scenes as rigid conventions, Nagler argues that they function as dynamic resources for invention, enabling Homer to shape expansive, unified works in real time before a listening audience. Drawing on his own fieldwork with modern singers in Crete, Nagler provides a compelling analogy for how oral poets, far from being constrained, perform at their most creative when engaging an audience or even a recording device.
At once a contribution to Homeric studies and to broader debates in comparative literature, Spontaneity and Tradition reframes the "Homeric Question" by underscoring the coherence, flexibility, and depth of Homer's art. Nagler situates the epics within a continuum of "spontaneous-traditional art," emphasizing how oral composition-in-performance generates meaning at multiple levels—from formula and phrase to type-scene and narrative design. His analysis of textual transmission and his defense of a unitarian Homer highlight both the stability and the vitality of this tradition. Engaging with linguistics, anthropology, and literary theory, this book offers scholars a fresh perspective on Homer while modeling a method for approaching oral traditions worldwide.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1974.
