Signs of orality
Subtitle: the oral tradition and its influence in the Greek and Roman world
By: edited by E. Anne Mackay.
Contributors: Mackay, E. Anne.
Series: Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava.; 188
Publisher: Brill
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng; lat; ger
Number of pages: 261
Subjects: Homer -- Technique.; Classical literature -- History and criticism.; Language and culture -- Greece.; Language and culture -- Rome.; Oral-formulaic analysis.; Oral tradition -- Greece.; Oral tradition -- Rome.; Greece -- Civilization.; Rome -- Civilization.
Description: The essays in this volume present new insights into the far-reaching influence of an early oral culture on subsequent development after the spread of literacy. At the outset, revisionist essays on the Homeric epics examine such questions as historical memory, Homer's audience(s), descriptive strategies, ring-composition, and the status of orality as a constitutive feature of the epics.

These are followed by virtually unprecedented studies of the orality of later (written) literature, including Greek oratory, Virgilian epic, Pliny's Panegyricus and story-telling in late Greek writers.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.