[lit-ideas] By Word of Mouth (Was: Oral Plesant Story Time with Revd. Geary)
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 10:59:49 EDT
Thanks to McCreery for commentary in "Sung Heroes". I'll try to see if I can
find an example that would qualify as a counterexample for what he is
looking.
This below are quotes in the OED for 'oral tradition' (under 'oral'). It
seems to me that the PRIMACY of the Spoken Word is presupposed in MOST MYTHS.
The fact that it is a literate culture that 'retrieves' the myth is
accidental.
I think a proof for your thesis would be to show a myth where the world is
not spoken of (as you say), but WRITTEN off.
Royce said that History was a book, where characters are written, and things
like that -- (this is cited by Borges in his "Partial Magic in The Quixote).
But that would hardly qualify as a graphopoetic myth (Carlyle held a similar
view).
Don't you hate the expression 'word of mouth'. Where else can a _word_ come
from?
Cheers,
JL
"oral",
Of, relating to, or designating a tradition, culture, society, etc., in
which the spoken word is the chief form of communication; (of stories, poems,
etc.) delivered or transmitted in this way, esp. from generation to generation.
1628 _BP. J. HALL_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-h.html#bp-j-hall)
Olde Relig. XVI. iii. 167 As for orall Traditions,
what certaintie can there be in them? 1678 _R. CUDWORTH_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-c4.html#r-cudworth)
True
Intellect. Syst. Universe I. v. 693 This Notion..was from the first Feigner or
Inventor of it, propagated all along and conveyed down, by Oral Tradition.
1767
_T. PERCY_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-p2.html#t-percy)
Ess. Anc. Minstrels 44 He [sc. Asser] has however particularly
recorded Alfred's fondness for the oral Anglo-Saxon poems and songs. 1775 _J.
ADAIR_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-a.html#j-adair)
Hist. Amer. Indians 11 They..still retain the ancient standard of
speech, conveyed down by oral tradition from father to son. 1892 _J. EARLE_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-e.html#j-earle)
Deeds of Beowulf p. xlvi, Müllenhoff had discovered six different authors,
of which the first two were oral poets, but the third had a written copy of
the rudimentary work as it then existed. 1898 _S. A. BROOKE_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-b4.html#s-a-brooke)
Eng.
Lit. from Beginnings to Norman Conquest ii. 42 This was the origin of the
early
unhistoric sagas, like that of Beowulf, and such a saga was the highest form
of the oral literature of the German tribes. 1929 W. E. LEONARD in K. Malone
& M. B. Ruud Stud. in Eng. Philol. in Honor of F. Klaeber 1 The intrinsic
nature..of oral or chanted verse as inevitably emphasizing an organic metrical
pattern. 1953 S. A. BROWN in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 40/1 The Negro was
contributing..through what we call oral The Negro folk literature. 1988
Classical Q. 38 44 Archilochus' message-stick has nothing to do with writing,
but
is a relic of the old oral culture in which he and his audience grew up. 1993
N.Y. Times 14 Sept. C15/2 The task of preserving Hawaii's less tangible
treasures:..the oral genealogies of its island families, its hulas and its
myths.
J. L. Speranza, Esq.
Town:
Calle Arenales 2021, Piso 5, St. 8,
La Recoleta C1124AAE,
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Tel. 54 11 4824 4253
Fax 54 221 425 9205
Country:
St. Michael Hall,
Calle 58, No. 611,
La Plata B1900 BPY
Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Tel. 54 221 425 7817
Fax 54 221 425 9205
http://www.stmichaels.com.ar
jls@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
http://www.netverk/~jls.htm
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