The world of oral tradition: Aspects of orality

oral, not illiterate

1. Aggregative rather than Analytic: i.e. Formulaic

use of phrases instead of words:

eg. 'brave soldier', 'beautiful princess'

USSR: 'the Glorious Revolution of Oct.26'

'enemy of the people', 'capitalist war-mongers'

Breaking up thought through analysis is a risky business w/out writing

Oral formulaic composition: use of repeated phrases and lines:

Epic of Gilgamesh:

Enkidu the faithful companion

Enlil of the mountain

Iliad

the bright-eyed goddess Pallas (Athena)

the father of men and gods (Zeus)

the fighting son of Atreus (Agamemenon)

the swift runner Achilles

much-enduring Odysseus

Beowulf

Beowulf the son of Ecgtheow

Hrothgar, protector of the Danes

Facilitated rapid, extemporaneous composition

technique seen in Serbo-Croatian guslars in first half of this century

2. Redundant

speech is repetitive

useful for listeners and speakers

3. Conservative or traditionalist

Oral poetry existed only as it was performed

Knowledge not repeated is soon lost; must be preserved

Public roles of oral poet:

historian

entertainer

public relations (eulogy)

preserver of values

preserver of knowledge and skills

From our perspective, oral poetry was a combination of:

a movie

a rock song

a history book

the Bible

a lecture on ethics

an etiquette manual

how-to-books

Homer worked in a tradition:

stories told by others before him

used formulae he inherited from others

Other genres of oral poetry in ancient Greece:

sacred verse: Homeric hymns

didactic verse: Hesiod's Theogony

genealogical verse

eulogy: praise poetry

4. Close to human lifeworld

everything is immediately related to human life

"Catalogue of Ships"

5. Agonistically toned

boasting and insults (flyting) common

challenges before combat

confrontation between Agamemenon and Achilles in Bk. 1

action frequently violent and gory

6. Empathetic and participatory rather than objectively distanced

reciters and listeners identify with action and characters

Plato's "condemnation" of poets and poetry

modern students' plot summaries

7. Homeostatic

oral cultures slough off unneeded memories

past interpreted in light of the present

Tiv of Nigeria: genealogies recast

Ndewura Jakpa, founder of Gonja and his 7 (or is it 5?) sons

old words and meanings disappear

oral and oral-derived texts historical in approach but contemporary in meaning

8. Situational rather than abstract

People in an oral culture:

Identify geometrical figures by names of objects

engage in situational thinking

are unable to produce or follow logical syllogisms

resist definitions

have difficulty producing articulate self-analysis