This study explores the Balinese verbal art of the shadow theater against a background of cultural beliefs and behavior regarding both sounded and written language. Its aim is to clarify the linguistic and textual features of wayang parwa within the context of Bali's particular "noetic economy"--that is, the ways in which culturally-valued information is processed and communicated. Part I of the thesis considers several aspects of languages and literatures in Bali. In Chapter One both diachronic influences and synchronic patterns of multiple code usage are discussed, as well as ideas from the realms of linguistic and literary studies. Chapter Two raises the question of the meanings of language in Bali. The place of both inscribed and sounded language on the cosmological map associates linguistic form and language activity with other fundamental elements in the conceptual system. Language forms and behavior have non-trivial consequences in both esoteric and social realms. Chapter Three takes up the basic pattern of literary consumption in Bali, which joins the medium for the written word with oral performance and paraphrase of the text. The subject of Part II is the language of wayang parwa and the text-building strategies used by the puppet master (dalang) in shadow theater performance. Chapters Four and Five consider the basic verbal structure of dramas (lampahan) formed by Kawi (Old Javanese) and Balinese languages, as the performer uses both processes of oral composition and the conventions of written tradition. Chapter Six treats dramatic structure as well as the selection and staging of the play in the immediate setting of the performance. Chapter Seven includes final commentary on the resonance of sight and sound, voice and written letter, repetition and spontaneity, represented by the language of the shadow theater. Contemporary processes of change, both in language and the media through which knowledge is shaped and stored, are adding new dimensions to the verbal arts of Bali, as they are interwoven with the entire fabric of Balinese modes of discourse.Ph.D.LinguisticsUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/158550/1/8125226.pd
