Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Ruth H. Webber. "Historicidad y tradicionalidad en el Cantar de Mio Cid." In Actas del Septimo Congreso de la Asociación Internacional de Hispanistas (celebrado en Venecia del 25 al 30 de Agosto de 1980): Publicadas por Giuseppe Bellini. Rome: Bulzoni. pp. 585-90.

Re-examines the problem of historicity in the "cantares de gesta," especially in the Cid, to unravel the current controversy. Gives three definitions of historicity: the presentation of historical reality, the poeticizing of history, and the novelization of history by a literate poet. Notes historical discrepancies in the Cid and asserts that available evidence confirms the second of these, as proposed by Menéndez Pidal, although the poem also contradicts history. Argues that the mythologizing process can supplant historical fact, especially where changes follow folkloric patterns. Compare Lord 1970.
Area: HI