The Oral Epic

Karl Reichl is Professor Emeritus of the University of Bonn (Institute of English, American and Celtic Studies). He has had visiting professorships at Harvard University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, the University of Madison at Wisconsin, and the Karakalpak State University in Nukus. His main research interests lie in medieval oral literature and in contemporary (or near-contemporary) oral epic poetry, especially in the Turkic-speaking areas of Central Asia.

Introduction

Part I: Settings

1 How to Identify an Oral Epic

Oral: shades and grades

The challenge of native classification

An African interlude

The Uzbek dastan

2 The Singer

Epic singers: types and terms

How to become an epic singer

The chain of transmission

Creativity and innovation

3 Introducing Performance

The ethnography of communication

Textualization

Part II: Performance

4 Voice

Speaking

Singing

Shamanic voices

5 Gesture

Conventional gestures: the Karakalpak jïraw

Stylized gestures: the Kyrgyz manaschï

Gesture and inspiration

Gesture, miming, stage props

6 Oral Epics as Songs

Song as vehicle, song as music

‘Riding the song’: the singing of the Kyrgyz epic Manas

Music and metre: some examples

7 Voice and Instrument

Gusle, qobïz, horse-head fiddle

Lute, dutar, dombira

The interplay of song and instrument

Part III: Interpretation

8 Words, Music, Meaning

Meaning and expression

What’s in a name?

Imitation

Leitmotifs in Siberian oral epics

Expression and convention

9 The Singer and the Tale

Point of View

Mythological epics, sacred time

First-person narration, shamanic traces

The narrator’s presence in the narrative

10 Performance and Interpretation

Visualization and imaging

Aria and recitative

From context to text

Appendices

A Notes on Oral Epic Traditions

B Audio/Video Examples

C Discography