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Oral Tradition Volume 23, Number 1
March 2008
Table of Contents | Editor's Column | About the Authors
Of Time, Honor, and Memory: Oral Law in Albania
by Fatos Tarifa
Former Albanian ambassador to the United States, Tarifa provides a historical account of the role of oral tradition in the transmission of an ancient code of customary law that has shaped and dominated the lives of northern Albanians until well into the mid-twentieth century. This traditional body of law, known as the Kode of Lek? Dukagjini, represents a series of norms, mores, and injunctions that were passed down by word of mouth for generations. The article ultimately seeks to illuminate the role of oral tradition in the formulation and maintenance of law, as well as the specific ways in which Albanian society has been affected—within the greater context of Turkish imperialism—by this ancient and powerful body of knowledge.
Narrative Structure and Political Construction: The Epic at Work
by Florence Goyet
This article explores the idea that the construction of meaning lies at the very foundation of oral or “oral-derived” texts, which rely on the totality of tradition to create precise meaning. Through a careful analysis of the epic genre, Goyet asserts that its core function is precisely to allow society as a whole to understand—first dimly and then in more detail—a new political order. The major works treated are the Old French Song of Roland, the ancient Greek Iliad, and the Japanese H?gen and Heiji monogatari.
The Authority of the Spoken Word: Speech Acts in Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
by Marie Nelson
This article begins by noting Mark Twain’s decision to invest in the Paige typesetting machine rather than Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, and then goes on to examine the main protagonist Hank Morgan’s successful use of both technologies as he faces life-threatening challenges after being transported to King Arthur’s sixth-century England. Morgan also proves a masterful performer of “speech acts,” strategies that effect changes in the people and circumstances that surround him. His “illocutionary” and “perlocutionary” acts enable him time and again to survive to tell his story.
A Spanish Bishop Remembers the Future: Oral Traditions and Purgatory in Julian of Toledo
by Nancy P. Stork
Stork considers Bishop Julian of Toledo and his seventh-century creation of one of the most influential works on Purgatory, the Prognosticon Futuri Saeculi. Enormously popular in Western Europe, it provided a convenient compendium of source material used by preachers and theologians for centuries. Though the work itself consists of citations from Patristic authors, Julian’s preface and the titles to each section reveal how, in a sort of spiritual “convivium” with his friend Idalius, he initially composed the book from memory. Surviving manuscripts show how the text was studied and transmitted in early monastic school settings.
When the Text Becomes the Teller: Apuleius and the Metamorphoses
by Susan Gorman
This article analyzes Apuleius’ Metamorphoses and the ways in which it enacts storytelling on both a contextual and a formal level. Gorman argues that Apuleius creates an alternative countercultural audience for his text, one that resists the Romanization process on the margins of the empire. By questioning the historical moment of production and exploring the political dynamics incorporated into the Metamorphoses, she emphasizes the power of the intermediary genre of storytelling, situated between the highly formal epic and the less rule-bound novel.
From Journalism to Gypsy Folk Song: The Road to Orality of an English Ballad
by Tom Pettitt
This essay provides an ingenious analysis of indigenous and enduring folksongs within the Gypsy oral tradition in England. It traces a brief history of scholarship on Gypsy folksong, as well as treats the inherently tricky issue of what a ballad is, before entering into a discussion of the interaction between orally transmitted folksongs and written broadsides. Ultimately, Pettitt illustrates how discernible trends may provide valuable insights into the ways in which oral tradition interacts with and influences verbal performance culture.
De-composition in Popular Elizabethan Playtexts: A Revalidation of the Multiple Versions of Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet
by Lene Petersen
Petersen addresses the ways in which Shakespeare’s early play-texts have been transmitted from the sixteenth century forward. With specific reference to multiple versions of Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, she illustrates how the so-called “bad” quartos of those plays show distinct similarities with multiple versions of orally and memorially transmitted folk tales and ballads—in particular, the so-called broadside ballads. Tables and lists of repetitive patterns, formulas, and transpositions throughout the short quarto versions exemplify how the plays may be understood as “de-composing” very similarly to collections of performances from oral tradition.
Welsh Saints’ Lives as Legendary Propaganda
by Owain Edwards
Although some medieval legends may have naturally evolved from folklore, others, including the legend of St. David of Wales, are known to have been deliberately constructed as propaganda. This article describes the political situation in Wales in the late eleventh century, and presents the composition of the Life of St David by Rhigyfarch in the light of the western Church’s view of penance and almsgiving. Glimpses are afforded of details from the legend to illustrate its style.
Context and the Emerging Story: Improvised Performance in Oral and Literate Societies
by Thérèse de Vet
This article derives from recent fieldwork in Bali and offers an alternative methodology that may shed new light on the origins of the Homeric poems. In Bali written texts have co-existed and influenced—and have been influenced by—oral performances for at least a millennium. To discover why and how oral improvised performance persists beyond a few decades or a century, this article draws from current theoretical work in anthropology, archaeology, and performance studies.
URLs for websites, bibliographic references, and other online resources are reviewed, current, and valid at the time of publication. Oral Tradition cannot accept responsibility for the future availability of these online materials.
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