Ways of speaking: An ethnopoetic analysis of Ojibwe narratives

Abstract

The present study examines nine texts from the collection of Ojibwe narratives transcribed by William Jones during the years 1903-1905 primarily in the region north of Lake Superior. I have included five texts of one narrator whose stories are strongly represented in Jones\u27 collection. For comparison, I have also analyzed one text each of four other storytellers whose narratives Jones included. The purpose of my study is to examine the field work of William Jones (giving credit to Truman Michaelson\u27s careful editing) and, through the analysis of patterns found within the narratives, offer a further presentation of these nine texts that both clarifies their original transcriptions and revives their fundamental intentions. In my analysis of each of the nine texts, I have initially changed the presentation of the narrative from a prose form into a line, or poetic, one in order to facilitate recognition of persistent patterns inherent within the texts. The final analysis of each text includes a version in measured verse (Hymes, 1981, ch. 4) in both Ojibwe and English, an analysis of the patterns found within the narrative and a profile which lists in table form the major divisions and initial markers of a text at a glance. Following the analyses of all nine texts, an in depth discussion of the persistent patterns found within Ojibwe narratives from this sample concludes the study. As with any literary criticism, no single analysis is the final word on the form or meaning of a particular text. Instead, each new inquiry must learn from and extend prior insights. The present analysis attempts to do just that. By using these nine examples of texts from Jones\u27 collection, I have discovered significant shared elements among the texts as well as important differences between them, elements that were not visible in Jones\u27 prose transcriptions. Other more general aspects of the texts have also surfaced during my study which will add to the richness of our knowledge about Ojibwe narrative and narration as well as Native American literature in general