On the Greek island of Crete, the spoken word and storytelling function as conveyors of collective memory, local history, and as an outlet for exercising creativity and imagination. An example of that is the mandinádes folk poetry genre, fifteen-syllable rhymed couplets in iambic meter, each divided into an eight- followed by a seven-syllable part, where the fourteenth syllable must be stressed and the fifteenth unstressed. In fact, to be considered a genuine Cretan, one must know how both to recite and to compose mandinádes; in addition to serving as entertainment, they are also a means of expression of identity and a forum for discussing local issues, providing an opportunity for Cretans to express and debate their respective philosophies of life. Their meaning is judged for its performance and social appropriateness in relation to the occasion but also to the larger social and historical context of the community, transforming music and dance experiences into living memories.[1]
Words as Events introduces us to the mandinádes by focusing on the performance context and the multi-functionality of that genre and demonstrating how that traditional register gives voice to individual experiences of the composer, the performer, and the perceiver. To do so, Sykäri analyzes the processes and ideals of composition, the form and its conventions, creating a theoretical approach on how creativity impels. As stated in the preface, the emphasis is on the multilayered dialogism--performative, referential, and textual.
Chapter 1, “Introduction,” examines mantinádes as a poetic tradition across time. It shows how this form of rhymed, short poetry lies at the crossroads of composition and communicating and also provides an overview of research and discourses that have been conducted on the mantinádes and other relevant local literature and traditions. The author outlines her research questions and methodology, also providing us with useful information on her quite extensive fieldwork, ethical considerations, data produced in communicative interactions, the field, and the local terminology, as well as on the chapters to follow.
“Theoretical Frame of Interpretation,” chapter 2, explores the concept of register via a focus on the performance and its arena as a frame of experience and contextualization. The writer proceeds by analyzing the strategies of meaning, the concepts of dialogism, creativity, and competence as well as by conceptualizing improvisation in poetry and music and the understanding of improvisation in the scholarship. Sykäri examines the mantinádes as both text and process, what she calls “the double-identity.” To do so, she combines the results of earlier folkloristic and anthropological insights, but also extends those theoretical concerns further to address questions of spontaneity and individual agency.
The third chapter, “Crete and Traditional Performance Contexts,” provides the reader with information on Crete’s historical and socio-cultural setting as well as on Cretan song, music, and dance for both the western and the eastern parts of the island. The performance arena is defined and its various transformations examined. Here the focus is on casual singing events and serenades, whereas in chapter 4, “The Poetic Language,” the “continued” mantinádes are examined along with narrative songs, delving into what Sykäri aptly calls “couplets as building blocks.” The emphasis shifts to the origins of the metrical structure and the emergence of the poetic genre, its forms, means, and thematic contents.
“The Multidimensional Performance,” chapter 5, goes over various performance contexts--recited performance, poems embedded in speech, and stories of past performances. The author presents her thoughts on poetic inventiveness and on performance as gendered and shared experience, and concludes that in Crete the meaning of the mantinádes is explicitly or implicitly stated to lie in the performative, thematic continuity, the contextual relevance of the poem performed, the creative internal fitting or textual manipulation of a mantináda, and the way a statement or an idea is incorporated into the imagery of the poem. Sykäri concludes with a presentation of written and media contexts and arenas, acutely questioning the socialization process among friends and relatives (paréa) and the identity of the performer-receiver in such cases, for example, on television and in cell phone messages.
The study’s research results are presented mainly in the sixth and the seventh chapters, “Composition” and “A Theory of Dialogic Oral Poetry.” In the sixth chapter, Sykäri examines the ways tradition is internalized via local definitions of composition, the motivations for composing (e.g., for emotional self-expression), the verbal interaction as well as the rhyming and the structuring of the verse order. She is interested in how meaning is invented through rhyme and concludes that in Crete the ideal outcome when “building an image” and “capturing a theme” is that of coherence and a creativity (“poetic world”) that also allows reframing (“productive language”).
In the seventh and last chapter, dialogic oral poetry and the relationship between individuals and tradition is re-examined along with four aspects of creativity--performative or improvisatory, productive, personal, and perceptive. Sykäri juxtaposes the self-dependent poem with the plural aesthetics of performance and composition and the economy of tradition, coming to see Cretan poetry in a new light, as dialogic poetry, through multilayered performance, contextual, and textual dialogic qualities.
All in all, Sykäri’s study gives an overview of the historical and cultural background of the mantináda tradition as well as its interdisciplinary theoretical basis, the contemporary research on oral poetry, and the anthropological work on communicative speech genres. Her interdisciplinary ethnographic register analysis is useful for literature, folklore, and oral poetry scholars who focus on the questions of performance, communication, self-expression, and creativity.
I find particularly intriguing the way she talks about the double-identity of this genre, that of individual arguments and shared property-potentiality. Her suggestion that the creative challenges that draw people to mantinádes--the verbal, artistic playing with words and structures in the building of an image, the cognitive skills in making the point, and the experience of taking part in a dialogue--are important for today’s educators who could introduce this type of poetry into their teachings to raise students’ cognitive and creativity abilities. As a vehicle for social sharing and communication and a language of dealing and coping with one’s experiences, the mantinádes could also be viewed as an asset for strengthening local identity in a globalized world.
As a native of the island and scholar of Cretan music, I warmly welcome this study published in a series that has a long history in oral poetry, even though the music component of the poetry is missing along with a closer examination of its texts. Notes on transliteration, bibliography, and primary sources, several black-and-white pictures as well as an index and several examples translated into English strengthen the arguments presented throughout. Lastly, I observe that not only can words act as events, but events may also form into words, proving that, according to a contemporary mantináda, “globalization does not affect Crete as it keeps producing new seedlings.”
[1] Maria Hnaraki, Cretan Music: Unraveling Ariadne’s Thread (Athens: Kerkyra Publications, 2007).
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[Review length: 1141 words • Review posted on February 20, 2012]