The Creation of Basque Oral Poetry by Four American Bertsolaris

This study analyzes the improvisational styles of four Basque bertsolaris who live and perform in the United States, examining a broad range of elements, from the formal aspects of the stanzas to the rhetoric and speech employed by American bertsolaritza. Bearing in mind several rhetorical criteria, I evaluate the quality of this Basque oral genre as performed by these oral poets in a place and context so far removed from the place and context where this phenomenon was born.