Oral-formulaic composition

Oral-formulaic composition is a mode of oral poetry in which performers compose during performance using recurring phrases, themes, and metrical patterns.

Oral formula: A recurring phrase shaped to fit a particular metrical position in oral poetry. Formulas provide ready-made wording that performers adapt while composing in performance.
Milman Parry: An American classicist whose research established the modern study of formulaic composition in Homeric poetry. His analyses of Homer supplied the foundational evidence for the theory.
Homer: The name traditionally given to the ancient Greek poet associated with the Iliad and the Odyssey. The poems attributed to Homer were the central material in Parry's initial analyses.
Memorization: The retention and reproduction of information through memory. Formulaic composition differs from reproducing a poem word for word from memory.
Iliad: An ancient Greek epic poem about events in the Trojan War, traditionally attributed to Homer. Its repeated expressions and metrical patterns are central evidence for formulaic analysis.
Traditional theme: A recurring narrative scene or action shared across performances of a poetic tradition. Themes let performers organize episodes and expand a performance using inherited material.
Albert Lord: An American scholar of oral literature who documented South Slavic singers and developed Parry's research. His fieldwork connected formulaic theory to living performance traditions.
John Miles Foley: An American scholar of oral tradition who extended oral-formulaic research across genres and cultures. His work developed comparative approaches to performance and oral tradition.
Textual criticism: The study of textual variants to establish or interpret the wording of a work. A performance-based account complicates the assumption that an epic began as one fixed text.
Odyssey: An ancient Greek epic poem about Odysseus's journey home after the Trojan War, traditionally attributed to Homer. Its recurrent phrases and scenes invite comparison with the Iliad's compositional patterns.

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