This volume is a work of fundamental importance in the field of orality-literacy studies. It provides a thorough and detailed theoretical account of the compositional style of oral showing that the antithetical, balancing, formulaic quality of that style is deeply rooted in the psychological nature.

In this book, first published in 1990, Edgard Sienaert and Richard Whitaker offer the first English translation of Marcel Jousse's crucially important work, Le style oral. As the translators observe, this study fired the imagination of contemporary intellectuals in Paris soon after its publication and influenced the work of many. In this book, Jousse provides a thorough and detailed theoretical account of the compositional style of oral, as opposed to literate, authors, showing that the antithetical, balancing, formulaic quality of that style is deeply rooted in the psychological and even physiological nature of mankind.