One of the most difficult things about explaining to people why it really doesn’t matter who composed the Iliad or the Odyssey or when writing was introduced into their textualization, is that fully comprehending oral-formulaic theory requires a familiarity with linguistics and Homeric language that is increasingly harder to gain.
A very good point -- thinking about these epic poems as books analogous to books in our culture is anachronistic. And that includes our ideas about authorship.
Bozzone mentions jazz improvisation. There is also an explosion of scholarship that shows how eighteenth-century music was built from a repertory of easily replicable schemata.
One of the most difficult things about explaining to people why it really doesn’t matter who composed the Iliad or the Odyssey or when writing was introduced into their textualization, is that fully comprehending oral-formulaic theory requires a familiarity with linguistics and Homeric language that is increasingly harder to gain.
A very good point -- thinking about these epic poems as books analogous to books in our culture is anachronistic. And that includes our ideas about authorship.
Milman Parry, just read it.
Bozzone mentions jazz improvisation. There is also an explosion of scholarship that shows how eighteenth-century music was built from a repertory of easily replicable schemata.
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/music-in-the-galant-style-9780190095819?cc=us&lang=en&
thanks for this, I hadn't seen that book!
The question maybe lies with not who wrote it, but how many people.