Livre - textualization of Oral Epics : antecedents

This is a preprint solely for distribution among the participants of the conference on the "textualization of Oral Epics" organized for Folklore Fellows in Oral Epics at Turku University, Turku, Finland on June 27-29, 1996. It constitutes a chapter of a forthcoming book : Lauri Honko in collaboration with Chinnappa Gowda, Anneli Honko and Viveka Rai (1996) The siri epic as performed by Gopala Naika, Folklore Fellows' Communications, Academia Scientiarum Fennica, Helsinki. Since the author may change the text, quotations should be taken from the final, printed version.