#oral tradition
I scrolled for ages and couldn’t find the original post, but credit to @terpsikeraunos
Medieval Oral Literature Karl Reichl (editor) Medieval literature is to a large extent based on oral tradition and permeated by various forms of orality: literary texts were commonly read aloud, up into the late Middle Ages; popular literature was often transmitted orally and performed by public entertainers; and a number of literary forms were shaped by an oral background. Although questions of…
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Oral Literature in Africa
by Ruth Finnegan 2012
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||| Publisher’s Blurb|||
Ruth Finnegan’s Oral Literature in Africa was first published in 1970, and since then has been widely praised as one of the most important books in its field. Based on years of fieldwork, the study traces the history of storytelling across the continent of Africa.
This revised edition makes Finnegan’s ground-breaking research available to the next generation of scholars. It includes a new introduction, additional images and an updated bibliography, as well as its original chapters on poetry, prose, “drum language” and drama, and an overview of the social, linguistic and historical background of oral literature in Africa. Oral Literature in Africa has been accessed by hundreds of readers in over 60 different countries, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and numerous other African countries.
|||Contents|||
List of Illustrations
Forward by Mark Turin
Preface to the First Edition
Preface to the Second Edition
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements: Addendum 2012
Abbreviations
Note on Sources and References
I • INTRODUCTION
1. The ‘oral’ nature of African unwritten literature
2. The perception of African oral literature
3. The social, linguistic, and literary background
II • POETRY
4. Poetry and patronage
5. Panegyric
6. Elegiac poetry
7. Religious poetry
8. Special purpose poetry — war, hunting, and work
9. Lyric
10. Topical and political songs
11. Children’s songs and rhymes
III • PROSE
12. Prose narratives I. Problems and theories
13. Prose narratives II. Content and form.
14. Proverbs
15. Riddles
16. Oratory, formal speaking, and other stylized forms
IV • SOME SPECIAL FORMS
17. Drum language and literature
18. Drama
Conclusion
Map
Bibliography
Index
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One can also seek aid and comfort from specialists in the study of oral literature. Milman Parry and Albert Lord have shown how folk epics as long as The Iliad are passed on faithfully from bard to bard among the illiterate peasants of Yugoslavia. These “singers of tales” do not possess the fabulous powers of memorization sometimes attributed to “primitive” peoples. They do not memorize very much at all. Instead, they combine stock phrases, formulas, and narrative segments in patterns improvised according to the response of their audience. Recordings of the same epic by the same singer demonstrate that each performance is unique. Yet recordings made in 1950 do not differ in essentials from those made in 1934. In each case, the singer proceeds as if he were walking down a well-known path. He may branch off here to take a shortcut or pause there to enjoy a panorama, but he always remains on familiar ground—so familiar, in fact, that he will say that he repeated every step exactly as he has done before. He does not conceive of repetition in the same way as a literate person, for he has no notion of words, lines, and verses. Texts are not rigidly fixed for him as they are for readers of the printed page. He creates his text as he goes, picking new routes through old themes. He can even work in material derived from printed sources, for the epic as a whole is so much greater than the sum of its parts that modifications of detail barely disturb the general configuration.
—Robert Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History
The Color of Pomegranates (1969)
Directed by Sergei Parajanov
Doomsy’s Rating: 92/100 (on my Great Films list!)
Serving as an amazing double feature with Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Sergei Parajanov’s untouchable art-house masterwork The Color of Pomegranates is a one-of-a-kind experience that is an absolute visual feast from start to finish. The film is based on the life of Armenian poet Sayat-Nova, and is told through in a series of tableau set-pieces of rich symbolism and psychedelic mise-en-scene manipulation. A clear influence on several prominent pieces of modern media (namely the music videos for R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” and Lady Gaga’s “911″), this is a spoonfeeding of the Armenian oral tradition and its glorious cultural history. Although heavily censored by the Soviet Union against the wishes of Parajanov, likely for its less-than-flattering subtext about the occupation of the Soviets, the film remains a transcendent and enchanting journey through a culture never seen before on film. The use of color, so exquisite in its breadth, is nearly kaleidoscopic and wholly unforgettable. There is a certain patience required for a film like this, as its not a film that is best served in narrative terms, but that should not deter anyone from such an enigmatic and beautiful work. If you like your films a little impenetrable and mysterious, this is a tone poem for the ages.
Watched on Criterion Channel.
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