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Words as Events introduces the tradition of short, communicative rhyming couplets, the mantinádes, as still sung and recited in a variety of performance situations on the island of Crete. Recently, these poems have also entered modern mass media and they are widely being exchanged as text messages by Cretans. Focusing on the multi-functionality of the short form, Sykäri demonstrates how the traditional register gives voice to individual experiences in spontaneous utterances. The local focus on communicative economy and artistry is further examined in a close analysis of the processes and ideals of composition. By analyzing how the “restrictions” of form and performative conventions in fact generate impulses of creativity, the author creates a theoretical approach that is sensitive to the special characteristics of the short, rhymed poetic traditions.

In this interdisciplinary study, the reader is invited to become familiar with the current folklore theory of oral poetry, which has a long tradition in Finland. The author combines the results of earlier folkloristic and anthropological insights, and extends the theoretical concerns further to address questions of spontaneity and individual agency. The research data has been produced in communicative interactions during long-term fieldwork. As a result, the short, rhymed poetry, often neglected by scholars in earlier research paradigms, can now be seen in new light – specifically as dialogic poetry – through its extended, multi-layered dialogic qualities.

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...7
Note on transliteration ...17

I. INTRODUCTION ...19
Mandinádes in Crete: a poetic tradition across the time ...19
In the crossroads of composition and communicating ...25
Rhymed poetry ...26
Short, communicative forms ...27
Research on mandinádes and related traditions ...28
Local literature and discourses on mandinádes ...35
Research as engagement ...37
Research questions ...37
Fieldwork ...39
Methodology and methods of research and analysis ...43
Ethical considerations ...48
Data ...49
The field ...50
Local terminology ...51
Outline of the chapters ...52

II. THEORETICAL FRAME OF INTERPRETATION ...54
The register ...57
Focus on performance ...61
Performance arena as a frame of experience...61
Contextualization ...61
Strategies of meaning ...62
Dialogism ...64
Creativity and competence ...65
Conceptualizing improvisation ...69
Perceptions of improvisation among folklore scholarship ...70
Improvisation in music ...73
Improvisation and metrical registers ...75
Poems as text and process: the double-identity ...79

III. CRETE AND TRADITIONAL PERFORMANCE CONTEXTS ...81
Crete as historical, social and cultural setting ...81
Cretan music, dance and song ...86
Rizítika songs of the western Crete ...92
Shared performance arena, the gléndi ...93
The traditional gléndi ...93
The gléndi and the dances in eastern Crete ...96
The gléndi in the rizítika area of western Crete ...97
Poetic confrontations ...98
Transformations of the gléndi ...100
Casual singing events ...104
Kantáda ...115

IV. THE POETIC LANGUAGE ...117
Origins of the metrical structure and the emergence of the mandináda ...117
Poetic form and means ...121
Thematic contents ...127
Couplets as building blocks ...132
Mandinádes “continued” (sinehómenes) ...132
Narrative songs ...135
V THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL PERFORMANCE ...138
Recited performances ...139
Poems embedded in speech ...141
Stories of past performances ...146
Presentation of poetic inventiveness ...149
Performance as gendered and shared experience ...150
Participation, improvisation and meaning ...152
Thematic continuation ...153
Statements/ideas enclosed in the imagery ...154
Contextual relevance ...155
Internal fitting ...156
Written and media contexts ...157
Written arenas ...158
When television substituted the paréa ...159
Mobile phone messages ...160
Individual and shared: problems implied by the double-identity in modern arenas ...161

VI. COMPOSITION ...162
Internalizing the tradition ...162
Local definitions of composition ...166
Rhyming and structuring the verse order ...168
Inventing meaning through rhyme ...171
The ideal of coherence: building an image ...172
Motivations for composing ...176
Verbal interaction ...177
Composition for emotional self-expression ...180
Capturing a theme ...182
The creativity of making the point: reframing ...185
Commanding a poetic world as a productive language ...191

VII. A THEORY OF DIALOGIC ORAL POETRY ...195
Dialogic oral poetry ...195
Individuals and tradition ...196
Four aspects of creativity ...198
The self-dependent poem and the economy of tradition ...200
The plural aesthetics of performance and composition ...202
From oral to modern performance arenas ...205
Performative, contextual and textual dialogue ...206

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND PRIMARY SOURCES ... 210
INDEX ...220