Bibliograph

Hearing Homer's song, the brief life and big idea of Milman Parry, Robert Kanigel

Type

Label

Hearing Homer's song, the brief life and big idea of Milman Parry, Robert Kanigel

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-306) and index

resource.biographical

individual biography

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Hearing Homer's song

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1178650035

Responsibility statement

Robert Kanigel

Sub title

the brief life and big idea of Milman Parry

Summary

In the early 1930s, Milman Parry introduced the revolutionary hypothesis that the Iliad and the Odyssey were not "written" as we understand it, but derived from an oral tradition going back centuries; this idea's effects are still felt in contemporary scholarship, but Parry himself has mostly disappeared from view. Now, Robert Kanigel gives us a full and vivid account of his life, explores the mystery surrounding Parry's death at 33, and describes how, in the ensuing years, what began as a way to understand the Homeric epics became the new field of "oral theory," which continues to be applied to everything from Beowulf to jazz improvisation, from the Old Testament to the latest hip-hop

resource.variantTitle

Brief life and big idea of Milman Parry

Classification