SLAV 512 - September 16, 2003
What are these poems about?
What is the tone?
What sorts of things strike you?
Ending
Gender relations
What makes a hero heroic
Position of the ruler
What about the narrative style
To what extent are various things described
To what extent are various people described
How is dialogue rendered
Are these stories of loss?
What is lost? Is it a type of relationship between the sexes?
Which would mean a social restructuring and a loss of a type of society, a way of life
Issue of hubris
To what extent are they saying that the Russians overestimated what they could do and thus got themselves into big trouble
Compare to Song of Roland
Relationship of these songs to reality
To what extent do these songs reflect real historical figures and real battles or other events?
Recall my telling them that epic was used not only as proof of having a high culture and being civilized, but also as a way of reconstructing a loss literature
And a lost history
If there is no document of the Primary Chronicle type, then use epic
With the caveat that the memory of the folk may be imperfect and some restoration would be needed
Looking at the actual texts themselves:
Selection of events to be presented in epic versus selection of events to be presented in historical sources (or semi-historical sources like Primary Chronicle). What sorts of figures were selected for inclusion in epic versus the sorts of figures who appear in written records? Same question for events: which events are told in epic as compared to events told in written sources?
What about all of the frankly fantastic elements in epics? If this stuff is historical, what are dragons and shape-shifters doing here?
In this connection I would like to take up hubris and the "artful" behavior of epic heroes. They behave in a very stylized way, which often gets them into trouble, but when it does not, it makes a wonderful impression on everyone. What I have in mind is that Solovei Budimirovich does not just proposed to Vladimir's daughter; he insists on impressing her with fantastic buildings. To me, epic is war poetry and articulates some of the horrid and impossible situations of war and this very stylized behavior is part of it.
Lord questions:
1) Why did Lord set out to do this study? What motivated him to go study singers in Yugoslavia? What was his (or rather Milman Parry's) thesis?
2) What is a formula and what is a formulaic expression?
3) What is a theme?
4) How does the performer know/learn the structure of the tale as a whole?
5) What is the role of the audience in any one performance and what role does the audience play in perpetuating a tradition?