Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Bruce A. Rosenberg. "The Formulaic Quality of Spontaneous Sermons." Journal of American Folklore, 83:3-20.

Offers the oral tradition of American folk-preaching as a laboratory for studying oral-formulaic composition and as a still extant analog for medieval literature such as Beowulf. Discusses formula, theme, role of the audience (congregation), the results of a Parry-Lord formulaic analysis, and different sorts of repeated phrases. Stresses that a preacher's verbalization must be seen to be a process or creation rather than a rote memorization, in other words the result of phrase generation from a grammar of formulaic systems rather than verbatim recall. Also considers parallelism, clusters, and anaphora. Argues further that formulas must be understood in context, not in isolation, so that the continuity of composition can be assessed. Comments on the mnemonic role of the melody of chanting. Emphasizes that oral style and literacy are not mutually exclusive and notes that "to the conjecture that the Beowulf poet need not have been illiterate to compose in the formulaic style we have the support of findings in the field"(19).
Area: US, FP, AA, OE, CP