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R. Friedrich, Formular Economy in Homer : The Poetics of the Breaches

R. Friedrich, Formular Economy in Homer : The Poetics of the Breaches

Publié le par Sophie Rabau

On peut lire un compte rendu decet ouvrage sur la Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Rainer Friedrich, Formular Economy in Homer. The Poetics of the Breaches, FranzSteiner Verlag, coll. "Hermes –Einzelschriften", n°100, 2007.

Isbn (ean):978-3-515-09065-0

Présentationde l'éditeur

Theprinciple of formular economy is to protect an oral poet's thesaurus offormulas against overload through the avoidance of metrical doublets. Beingspecific to oral poetry, it serves as the chief criterion for determining theorality of a text (known as the ‘economy test of orality'). Parryism's Theoryof the Oral Homer is predicated on the assumption of the poet's strictobservance of this principle. This study, examining the hitherto untestedParryist assumption, reveals a high frequency of breaches of economy in Homer,and demonstrates that these are for the most part motivated by poeticconsiderations. It arrives at the conclusion that formular economy and theresulting schematized diction are residual in the Homeric epics where theyyield to a largely schema-free style of composition.