This volume charts the development of the genre over the course of the twentieth century, traces the formation of theoretical systems, and introduces the author's own explorations of the 20th-century Mongolian bard Arimpil's singing of his native epic poetry.

Chao Gejin is a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Being a folklorist and literary critic, he focuses on folkloristics and literature, oral traditions in particular.

Part I Critical Reflections on Epic Studies. 1. Homer to Arimpil: The Pardigm Shift in International Epic Studies. 2. The History of Epic Research. 3. Current Issues in Epic Research. 4. John Miles Foley and Recent Research Trends on Oral Traditions. 5 Gregory Nagy: From the Homeric Question to Homeric Questions. 6. Lauri Honko: The Identity Function of Epic Poetry. Part II Theories and Methods of Oral Poetics. 7. Oral Poetics and the Oral Formulaic Theory. 8. Field Investigations of Oral Epic Transmission. 9. Oral Poetics and Chinese Epic Research: Interview with the Author. 10. Types of Oral Epic Texts: A Mongol Case Study. 11. "Returning to the Voice": Textual research of Oral Epics as a Starting Point. 12. "How Long is Long": Epic Length. Part III Indigenous Research on Mongolian Oral Poetics. 13. Mongolian Oral Epic Poetry. 14. The Oirat Epic Cycle of Jangar. 15. Analysis of Mongolian Epic Formulae. 16. Analysis of Mongolian Epic Prosody. Part IV Comparative Study of Four Epic Traditions. 17. Challenges in Comparative Oral Epic (Co-authored with Miles Foley)