Oral-Formulaic Theory and Research: An Introduction and Annotated Bibliography. New York: Garland Publishing. Rpt. 1986, 1989.

　　The introduction contains a comprehensive history of scholarship and research in the field from its beginnings through 1982 and offers as suggestions for future work three methodological principles for comparative criticism: tradition-dependence, a recognition of the unique features of each oral poetic tradition which in comparing works from different traditions “admits both similarities and differences concurrently, which places the general characteristics of oral structures alongside the particular forms they may take in a given literature” (69); genre-dependence, “demanding as grounds for comparison among traditions nothing less than the closest generic fit available, and, further, calibrating any and all comparisons according to the comparability of the genres examined” (69), a principle which also “encourages comparison of genres if a basic congruity can be established” (69); and text-dependence, “the necessity to consider the exact nature of each text” (69) including the circumstances surrounding the collection, transmission, editing processes, and text diplomacy. The bibliography contains a comprehensive list of annotations on studies through 1982 in 100 language areas, as well as theory, bibliography, concordance, film, and music.