Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | S | Scandinavian Studies

Thomas A. DuBois. Lyric, Meaning, and Audience in the Oral Tradition of Northern Europe.

Article Excerpt
Thomas A. DuBois. Lyric, Meaning, and Audience in the Oral Tradition of Northern Europe. Poetics of Orality and Literacy. Notre Dame: u Notre Dame P, 2006. Pp 268.

If unable to read for the plot, Homo narrans may feel himself at sea. Lyric, Meaning, and Audience offers us a framework for understanding what songs mean or, more properly, what songs mean, how, and to whom. DuBois's aim is to reveal the dominant norms that guide the interpretation of traditional lyric forms in a given culture. To help show how those norms differ from one culture to the next and to distinguish them from the norms governing scholars' and outsiders' interpretation of the same material, he draws up a model on which we can chart the emergence of meaning in and around non-narrative verbal expression.

The range of non-narrative verbal expression to which DuBois allows us access is impressively broad. His command of the languages of northwestern Europe is enviable as always; he draws on Latin, Old Irish, Middle Welsh, Gaelic, Sami, Finnish, Swedish, Old Norse, and English of every era. All texts are presented in the original language as well as English translation, and those able to read music will be pleased to...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!