Notes 1/18/2005

Oral v. Literate v. Illiterate
*Illiterate people operate within the same constructs as literate people, they just cannot read. Illiterate people do not exist in a primary oral culture.

*Literate people can read and they use
-chirographic: written (cave painting, Egyptian)
-typographic: print (deveolped 15th century)

*Oral people live within a speaking culture but have their own differences in
-dialect: the regional differences in speech

In a literate culture, what is the use of a written product?
*information
*history
*religious/moral
*communications
*propoganda
*writing as art
*entertainment
*instruction

In a literate culture, what is the use/form of an oral text?
*fable: generally has a moral, explanations for why things are the way they are. This is
also called an etiology.

*Riddles: turn the meaning upside down in order to cement the meaning in one's mind, it borders on spiritual essence. Examples seen in The Hobbit in Bilbo and Gollum's riddle flyting.

*Charms/Spells/Prayers: Magic, the essence of a spell is to have power over a thing through words.

*Story: the history of a people or culture, a sense of who we are.

The story in a literate culture is create by a solitary and silent author. The oral story is the product of a community. But, how ar these stories remembered orally?

How do we remember?
*repeating information
*elements of repetition (epithet)
*rhythm
*rhymes

Who is Memory?
*Memory's name in Greek mythology is Mnemosyne, the name from which we get mnemonic. She has 9 daughters who are the Muses. Know these names for Extra Credit on Quiz #1!

1. Calliope
2. Clio
3. Eratio
4. Enterpe
5. Melpomene
6. Polyhymnia
7. Terpsichore
8. Thalia
9. Urania

http://www.djo.ca/cbbMuses.html This website give a little description of each Muse's function.

Theories about the production of the Iliad
1. Homer was a genius who honed the story that was memorized by
subsequent poets.
2. The poem was constructed by a group (community) over a period
of many years.

Milman Parry favored the theory of oral production. Within oral training of bards/poets/scop, there are certain things to be learned that are later used in the construction of the poetry.
1. Complexes
2. Themes
3. Formulas - cliches, epithets. metrical word phrases used over and over to
keep the meter correct.

The oral storyteller composes within a community. These are the NINE THINGS YOU MUCST KNOW FOR THE QUIZ!!! Also see pages 36-57 in Ong.
*If the audience is different, the story should be different, too.
*Participatory interaction (the audience has a relationship with the teller)
*Repitition is built into the structure of the story
*Homeostatic: Pieces of the story that are no longer relevant get omitted over
time.
*Close tothe human life world: not terribly abstract themes or plots.
*Oral constructions additive not subordinative. Meaning that there is a strong
use of parataxis (the word "and" to link together events).
*Aggregative
*Conservative in information: there is a preservation of knowledge in the story.
The information is not original, the originality comes in the TELLING.
*Agonistic: tends to focus on conflict of interaction between human beings. Can be seen in "flyting".

Also, remember... Dog, Grapefruit, bottle of wine, toothpaste (crest), left shoe, eyebrow.

And Kori asks "Why are people in oral traditions liars?"