The Distribution of Oral Literature in the Old World

Chadwick, Nora K.

doi:10.2307/2844231

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Yes? What I and others found of course, once we looked, was the huge value of a new perspective that transformed, not the material itself (that did not change) but our own understandings, changing these 'passive, uninteresting, products' into art and literature (detailed in, to mention only a few from a vast roll of honor, Andrzejewski (1985); Bauman (1986); Chadwick (1939);Dos Santos (2004);Finnegan (1967Finnegan ( , [1970Finnegan ( ] 2012Finnegan ( , 1992) (many further references there); Foley (2002); Gerstle et al (2005); Haring (1992); Lord (1960); Sherzer (1990);Tedlock (1972); Valdés and Kadir (2004) and a multitude of works on similar lines).…”

Section: The Hidden Ordinary-some Examplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Secrets of the Extraordinary Ordinary: The Revelations of Folklore and Anthropology

Finnegan

2018

Humanities

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Abstract:The basic principle of folklore is constant-unveiling the hidden riches within the ordinary things of everyday life: a fine contribution to, and coordination with, the humanities. Examples are the study of the oral/orality; life stories of the obscure; practices of 'hidden' amateur musicians, studied ethnographically rather than through written scores or the 'great' composers; research by scholars outside the formal institutions of higher learning. An important new topic now being embarked on, in a scattered way, by folklorists and anthropologists, is the area known by such terms as 'noetics', 'psychic studies', 'heightened/altered consciousness', 'the shared mind', and the like. With a long history (too often disregarded in conventional scholarship) in antiquity, the middle ages, and eastern philosophies, this concerns such topics as dreaming; contact with and from the dead; experiencing music; and new, popularly but not academically acclaimed, perspectives on consciousness within innovative scientific thinking. Taking such studies further and, in particular, as folklorists and anthropologist have the capacity and interest to do, consolidating them into a new and fully recognized field of study together with linking this with endeavors across the disciplines, scientific as well as humanistic, will be of the greatest benefit for the humanities as a whole.

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Section: The Hidden Ordinary-some Examplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Secrets of the Extraordinary Ordinary: The Revelations of Folklore and Anthropology

Finnegan

2018

Humanities

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“…also the discussion and references in Goody and Watt 1963. 3 For the general discussion in this chapter see particularly the valuable brief article by Bascom in JAF 1955, also Chadwicks 1932 and Chadwick 1939. Some of the more detailed theories which have affected the study of African oral literature are discussed in Ch.…”

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confidence: 99%

Topical and Political Songs

Finnegan¹

2012

World Oral Literature Series

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What is Orality — if Anything?

Finnegan

1990

Byz. mod. Greek stud.

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A challenging start to the Colloquium' was what the organiser asked for, in the form of a critique of one of its key terms. This is what this paper endeavours to supply. I suspect it has turned out not quite as provocative as the title sounds, but it does attempt to provide some critical assessment of, and background to, the much-discussed concept of 'orality', presented from the viewpoint of an anthropologist long interested in the study of oral literature and poetry. Most of the discussion will be in general terms, but I will illustrate my points from time to time by examples from my own fieldwork in West Africa. 'Orality', together with the adjectival 'oral', is a term now to be found quite widely in scholarly writing, not only in the classic study of Homeric texts (where it has of course been particularly influential, and where, I believe, I first consciously encountered it) but also across a whole range of disciplinary-and interdisciplinary-contexts. It appears in the work of historians, literary and linguistic scholars, folklorists, anthropologists, biblical scholars, and interdisciplinary specialists in a whole series of historical periods or geographical regions. Sometimes there are particular technical meanings to the terms-as, for example, in some of its uses by oral historians or, in a different way, by the oral-formulaic scholars-but in general it has been used as a way into new interpretations and approaches, whether drawing attention to new materials, not hitherto usually the subject of scholarly study, or to new questions about old material. But what exactly is 'orality'? Before tackling that question directly let me start by looking at some features of the new interpretations and questions that the term has led to, and the way it has thus both increased and-sometimes-hindered our greater understanding. This should help to give some of the background, and illuminate our central question further.

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The Distribution of Oral Literature in the Old World

Cited by 4 publications

References 10 publications

Secrets of the Extraordinary Ordinary: The Revelations of Folklore and Anthropology

Secrets of the Extraordinary Ordinary: The Revelations of Folklore and Anthropology

Topical and Political Songs

What is Orality — if Anything?

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