The how of literature

A critical discussion of the concept of 'performance literature' as applied to the cross-cultural and comparative analysis of literature, with special but not exclusive reference to the literatures of Asia and Afric

Orality and literacy: epic heroes of human destiny?

Human Speech has often been presented as the crucial line dividing humanity from animals, with Literacy then entering in as the fulfiller of human destiny, the redeemer from primitive orality, and, in alphabetic apotheosis, the all-conquering hero of the west's civilising mission. This epic tale, pervasive as it still remains, is now under attack from many directions, not least in the expanding work on multiple literacy practices. This paper takes the complementary line of starting from the 'oral' end of the apparent equation. Building on anthropological fieldwork, experience of teaching at the UK's Open University, and the gathering comparative literature, it questions the limiting linguistic bias of this tale – itself a kind of myth explaining and justifying the social order. Verbal language is just one of many modes and media of human communication and can only be fully understood in conjunction with them. The traditional myth also underplays the multiplex nature of language itself: researchers across several disciplines are now increasingly revealing the multimodal nature of human speech and writing. To focus on narrower definitions of language and, as in the heroic elevation of 'orality' and 'literacy', to propose the treatment of language as the crucial factor in human culture is to proffer a thin and single-line tale of human history and, with it, a misleading and ethnocentric account not only of humanity more generally but also of many of our actual educational practices. It needs to be replaced by a broader, more cross-cultural and more generous model of both learning and communication

Oral tradition : Weasel words or transdisciplinary door to multiplexity?

Processing note: quotation marks removed to ensure alphabetical order. Difference as follows; "Oral Tradition": Weasel Words or Transdisciplinary Door to Multiplexity

Why Do We Quote?

Quoting is all around us. But do we really know what it means? How do people actually quote today, and how did our present systems come about? This book brings together a down-to-earth account of contemporary quoting with an examination of the comparative and historical background that lies behind it and the characteristic way that quoting links past and present, the far and the near. Drawing from anthropology, cultural history, folklore, cultural studies, sociolinguistics, literary studies and the ethnography of speaking, Ruth Finnegan’s fascinating study sets our present conventions into cross-cultural and historical perspective. She traces the curious history of quotation marks, examines the long tradition of quotation collections with their remarkable recycling across the centuries, and explores the uses of quotation in literary, visual and oral traditions. The book tracks the changing definitions and control of quoting over the millennia and in doing so throws new light on ideas such as 'imitation', 'allusion', 'authorship', 'originality' and 'plagiarism'

Oral composition

1st paragraph: Oral composition broadly refers to the creation of organized verbal formulations without reliance on writing. Although in essence a familiar process in everyday speech, it has become a quasi-technical and debated term, applied especially to bringing into being relatively sustained examples of entextualized VERBAL ART , both ancient and recent. It has thus been of interest to linguists, anthropologists, folklorists, psychologists, historians, and specialists in specific languages and cultures, also linking to work on ORAL CULTURE, PERFORMANCE, STORY, LITERACY, and MEMORY

Tradition, But What Tradition and For Whom?

The Milman Parry Lecture on Oral Tradition for 1989-9

Introduction; or, Why the Comparativist Should Take Account of the South Pacific

This issue of Oral Tradition is devoted to oral traditions in the South Pacific and reports the results of a series of twentieth-century and mainly field-based studies. Since this region may be unfamiliar to some readers, these opening comments give a very brief introduction to this vast area, followed by some discussion of the significance of its oral traditions and their study for the wider comparative study of oral tradition

Oral Literature in Africa

Ruth Finneganâ 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 Finneganâ 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. The digital editions of this book are free to download thanks to the generous support of interested readers and organisations, who made donations using the crowd-funding website Unglue.it. Oral Literature in Africa is part of our World Oral Literature Series in conjunction with the World Oral Literature Project

Teacher and Principal Perceptions of A New Evaluation Program for Teachers

The ability to evaluate teachers accurately is indispensable for both the development of effective teachers and for student achievement. In this era of accountability, it is important school districts develop evaluation systems that comply with the propriety, utility, feasibility, and accuracy standards of the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluations. This study focused on a process evaluation of a new teacher evaluation program. While previous studies have been conducted from the teachers or the evaluators’ perspectives, this study examined both perspectives. More than 1,500 teachers and 41 principals were invited to complete an online instrument modified from surveys conducted by Hopkins and Stronge. of concern to the teachers and principals was the accuracy of the new evaluation program, they did not see the value and validity of using SLOs to improve teaching practices to increase learning, and teachers slightly favored using the professional practices component more than the SLO component of the evaluation. Using SLO data in teacher evaluation is an unknown dynamic for teachers; therefore, school administrators need to understand how teachers perceive this change as it relates to teacher support of the new evaluation process. If districts are to safeguard the fidelity, implementation, and sustainability of new evaluation programs for teachers, districts must acknowledge the influence teacher perceptions have on endorsing implementation efforts toward change. Teachers’ perceptions toward adjusting instructional practices to align with the standards and criteria of new evaluation programs can either hinder or ensure program implementation

«Transitional» Texts Across the World – What Are They?

The main argument of this article is that, to some degree, all texts can be called ‘transitional’: they are, necessarily, set within the ongoing or processes of history, thus multiple in nature, flexible, changing, conditional on specific occasions, shaped by their cultural context(s), their medium and, above all, by specific creators and receivers. Similarly, I argue that there does not exist anything necessarily revolutionary about the once touted but now widely questioned “Great Divide” between orality and literacy across which texts had to make a great transition. I also discuss the various different modes and situations in which texts could be said to be, for different users and purposes, in some way ‘transitional’, with particular reference to examples from Africa and the South Pacific. I conclude that all culture, all language, all human action is in a sense transitional and dynamic.Este artículo sostiene que todos los textos, en alguna medida, pueden ser llamados “transicionales”: necesariamente están insertos en la marcha o proceso de la historia, y por tanto son múltiples por naturaleza, flexibles, cambiantes, condicionados por ocasiones específicas, modelados por su(s) contexto(s) cultural(es), su medio y, sobre todo, por los productores y receptores individuales. Igualmente, explico que no existe nada necesariamente revolucionario acerca de la “gran división”, tiempo atrás publicitada pero ahora ampliamente cuestionada, entre oralidad y escritura, a través de la cual los textos tenían que hacer una gran transición. También discuto los diferentes modos y situaciones en los que se puede decir que los textos son, para distintos usuarios y fines, “transicionales” de alguna manera, con particular referencia a ejemplos de África y del Pacífico sur. Concluyo que toda la cultura, todo el lenguaje, toda la actividad humana es, en cierto sentido, transicional y dinámica