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Repetition and aesthetic function in the Poema de mio Cid and South-Slavic oral and literary epic

1981; Liverpool University Press; Volume: 58; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/1475382812000358189

1469-3550

John S. Miletich,

Linguistics and language evolution

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image sizeBSS Subject Index: AESTHETICSCOMPARISONS IN LITERATURE & CULTUREEPICISLAM — HISTORY, LITERATURE, CULTURE & INFLUENCEORAL TRADITIONPOEMA DE MIO CID/CANTAR DE MIO CIDRUSSIA — HISTORY, LITERATURE, CULTURE & INFLUENCE Notes 1. Michael Magnotta, ‘Per Abat y la tradición oral o escrita en el Poema del Cid: un ensayo histórico-crítico (1750–l972)\HR,XLUl(1975),293–309,and Historiay bibliografía de la crítica sobreel ‘Poema de mio Cid’ (1750–1971) (Chapel Hill 1976. :Charles B. Faulhaber, ‘Neo-traditionaiism, formulism, individualism, and recent studies on the Spanishepic’, R.Ph, XXX Í1976–77), 83–101; A. D. Deyermond, ‘Tendencies in Mio Cid Scholarship, 1943-1973’, in 'Mio Cid' Studies, ed. A. I). Deyermond (London 1977), 13–47; the following with particular emphasis on such aspects as quantitative formulary analysis: Margaret Chaplin, ‘Oral-formulaic style in the epic: a progress report’, in Medieval Hispanic Studies Presented to Rita Hamilton, ed. A. D. Deyermond (London 1976), 11–20; John S. Miletich, ‘The quest for the “formula”: a comparative reappraisal’, M.Ph, LXXIV (1976–77), 111–23. 2. My previous work along these lines can be found in the following studies: ‘Repetitive sequences and their effect on narrative style in Spanish and South Slavic traditional narrative poetry’, DAI, XXXVI (1975–76), 8104–A; ‘Narrative style in Spanish and Slavic traditional narrative poetry: implications for the study of the Romance epic’, Olifant, II (1974–75), 109–28; ‘1974 Annual Meeting of the Société Rencesvals, American-Canadian Branch, Proceedings’, ibid., 164–66, 172–73; ‘The South Slavic bugarštica and the Spanish romance: a new approach to typology’, International Journal of Slavic Linguistics and Poetics, XXI (1975), 51–69; ‘The poetics of variation in oral-traditional narrative’, Forum at Iowa on Russian Literature, I (1976), 57–69; ‘Oral-traditional style and learned literature: a new perspective’, PTL: A Journal for Descriptive Poetics and Theory of Literature, III ( 1978), 345–56; ‘Elaborate style in South Slavic oral narrative and in KaČic's Miošic's Razgovor’, American Contributions to the Eighth International Congress of Slavishts, ed. Henrik Birnbaum (Columbus, Ohio 1978), I, 522–31; ‘Medieval Spanish epic and European narrative traditions’, La Coránica, VI (1977–78), 90–96; ‘The Stylistic differentiation of oral and written literature: current methodologies’, NauČni sastanak slavista u Vukove dane: referati i saopštenja (Belgrade 1977), VI, No. 2, 117–28 (in Serbo-Croatian, with summary in English); ‘South Slavic and Hispanic versified narrative: a progress report on one approach’, in El Romancero hoy: Historia, Comparatismo, Bibliografía crítica, ed. Samuel G. Armistead, Antonio Sánchez Romeralo and Diego Catalán (Madrid 1979), 131–35; ‘Hispanic and South Slavic traditional narrative poetry and related forms: a survey of comparative studies (1824–1977)’, in Oral Traditional Literature: A Festschrift for Albert Bates Lord, ed. John M. Foley, forthcoming; most recent data are from an analysis of the entire literary epic Smrt Smailage Čengica of Ivan Mažuranic. The Russian texts analysed comprise traditional material only. 3. On the problem of epic genre, see: Alois Schmaus, Studije o krajinskoj epici [Rad JAZU, CCXCVII] (Zagreb 1953), 125–32 (also in ‘Studije o krajinskoj epici’, in Narodna književnost, ed. Vladan Nedic [Belgrade 1966], 281–91 and in'Iz “Studija o krajinskoj epici” ’,in Usmena književnost, ed. Maja Boškovic-Stulli [Zagreb 1971], 237–45); for a survey of various positions and problems, Miletich, ‘The South Slavic’, 51-69; for a form of Structuralist analysis, Larry S. Crist, ‘Deep structures in the chansons de geste: hypotheses for a taxonomy’, Olifant, III (1975–76), 3–35; for an analysis of Lordian story-pattern, John M. Foley, ‘The traditional structure of Ibro Basic’š Alagic Alija and Velagic Selim , Slavic and East European Journal, XXII (1978), 1–14. 4. The texts discussed are from the following editions: Ugljanin's song: Serhocroatian Heroic Songs, coll. Milman Parry and ed. Albert B. Lord (Belgrade and Cambridge, Mass. 1953), II, 8–25 (English prose translation by A. B. Lord [1954], I, 68–89); Poema de mio Cid, ed. Colin Smith (Oxford 1972); Ivan Mažuranic and Matija Mažuranic, Smrt Smailage Čengica. Stihovi, proza. Pogled u Bosnu, ed. Ivo Frangeš (Zagreb 1965); for a useful English translation and essay on the Mažuranic epic, see ‘Smail-aga Čengic's Death’, trans. Charles A. Ward, intro, Ivan Slamnig, The Bridge, XVII (1969), 1–40. 5. Miletich, ‘Narrative style’, 122–23 and ‘Elaborate style’, 523–24. 6. Albert B. Lord, The Singer of Tales (Cambridge, Mass. 1960), 69 ff. and ‘Perspectives on recent work on oral literature’, FMLS, X (1974), 205–10. 7. The statement is based on my own data in work-sheet form. 8. Miletich, ‘Narrative style’, 119–23 and ‘Elaborate style’, 523, 526; my data in work-sheet form for the Pjesma od Bagdata, the Poema de mio Cid, the Mocedades de Rodrigo and the Smrt Smailage Čengica. 9. The technique is similar to that employed in the more extensive repetitions discussed in Schmaus, Studije o krajinskoj, 120 ff.; Matti Kuusi, ‘Über Wiederholungstypen in der Volksepik unter besonderer Beriicksichtigung der Edda, der Bylinen und der finnisch-estnischen Volksdichtung’, Sludia Fennica, IV (1952), 80; Miletich, ‘The poetics’, 57–69. 10. Romancero hispánico (hispano-portugués, americano y sefardí): Teoría e historia (Madrid 1953), I, 65–71. 11. Miletich, ‘The poetics’, 58. 12. Miletich, ‘The poetics’, 58–61, ‘Elaborate Style’, 524–26, and ‘The stylistic’, 126–27. 13. The complete series here includes 1538y. Throughout the study x designates the first hemistich and y the second. Those elements of the repetitive series will be illustrated as are necessary to give evidence of the pattern. Consequently at times insignificant elements will be omitted or important contextual members will be added to clarify the point. However, all verses referring to the repetitive series of category IV will be designated as such. A similar instance is 877–878: 880, (882), 883. Parentheses indicate that the unit is counted in another category of repetition. 14. The complete series includes also 723y and 724y. The other is 750x, 752:753x, (756x). 15. A similar instance is (721x), 723x, 725y, initial hemistichs of 726–730. 16. The series is 643, 645y, 647y. 17. The series is 162y, 163y, 164x, 165y, 166y. 18. Similar instances are (71y), 74y, 75y, 76x, (77x), 78x, 79x; devljel, sultan(ski), carev in the complete series 900x, 901 x. 902x:, 903x, 906x, 908y, 910, 911, 912x, 913y; careo, sultanski in the complete series 917y, 918, 919, 920x, 921y, which appeal's in the action portion of an extensive series in which speech (907y–915) has been transformed into action. 19. Similar examples are 959, 961x, 962y; 1005x, 1008x, 1010x, 1011x. 20. Rayah: in this context, Christian subjects of the Ottoman Empire. The Serbo-Croatian verb here signifies an animal's death. The complete series includes also 584y, 586y, 587y, 588x; the other is 336x, 337x, 340x, 341x. 21. The complete series is 18y, 20, 22y, 24x. 22. The series is 192x, 194y, 195y, 196x. 23. The complete series is 339x, 340x, 341, 342x, 343y. 24. The series is 458y, 460y, 461x, 463y. 25. The complete series comprises the first hemistichs of 563, 565, 568–570, 573, 574. 26. The first series is (1028y), 1029y, (1032x), 1033y, 1033bx, 1034x; the second is (1049x), 1052x, 1054x, 1056x, 1059x, 1062x. 27. This series echoes 902-904, 906y. 28. The repetitive series is 316, 317y, 319x. 29. The series is 712y, 713y, 714y, 717x. 30. The series is 634y, 635x, 636y, 638y, 640y, 641y in 633–41; other series occurring in similar patterns are: 483–484, 486–487 in 482–490; 502x, 503x, 505y, 506x, 508y in 505–510; 551x, 552y, 553y, 554y, 555y, 556x, 557, 558x, 559, 560, 56 lx, 562y in 551 -563, where dramatization also occurs through verbs of perception addressed to the reader—556y, 558y, 562y; 902–904, 906y in 901–907. 31. The first series is 1109-1110 in 1108-1111, which echoes 954–956; the second is 1121y, 1122x, 1124y, 1125x, 1127y, 1128x, 1130y, 1131x, 1133y, 1134x in 1120–1135, which echoes 1109–1110. 32. Vladan Nedic, ‘Filip Višnjic’, [1961], in Narodna književnost, ed. Nedic, 321–38; Schmaus, Studije o krajinskoj, 120ff.; Miletich, ‘The poetics’, 57–69 and ‘Elaborate style’, 524–26. 33. Maja Boškovic-Stulli, ‘O pojmovima usmena i puČka književnost i njihovim nazivima’, Umjetnost rijeČi, XVII (1973), 149–84, 237–60, esp. 184. 34. This point is discussed at greater length in Miletich, ‘Medieval Spanish’, 92–93, and ‘Oral literature and “pucka književnost”: toward a generic description of medieval Spanish and other narrative traditions’, Narodna umjetnost, forthcoming. 35. P. E. Russell, ‘Some problems of diplomatic in the Cantar de Mio Cid and their implications’, MLR, XLVII (1952), 340–49 and ‘San Pedro de Cardeña and the heroic history of the Cid’, Medium Aevum, XXVII ( 1958), 57–79; Poema de mio Cid, ed. Colin Smith, xxx-xxxvii; Smith, ‘Further French analogues and sources for the Poema de mio Cid', La Coránica, VI (1977-78), 14–21 (which includes references to studies along similar lines since 1971) and Estudios cidianos (Madrid 1977); A. D. Deyermond, A Literary History of Spain: The Middle Ages (London and New York 1971), 49 (rev. Spanish translation [Barcelona 1973]) and Epic Poetry and the Clergy: Studies on the ‘Mocedades de Rodrigo’ (London 1969). I would like to acknowledge the financial assistance provided for me by the University of Utah through a Faculty Research Grant, which in great measure facilitated the completion of the present study during the Summer of 1978. An earlier version was read at the Fifth Annual Ohio Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Cleveland, October 1978. I am indebted to Samuel Armistead and to Alan Deyermond for their many valuable suggestions for the final draft.