1. Explain why the notion that cultures can be distinguished as either “oral culture” or “written culture” (19) is a mistaken understanding as to how culture works, according to Chamberlin and your reading of Courtney MacNeil’s article “Orality.

As Chamberlin effectively explains, society has dismissed the two cultures as either barbaric or civilized depending on whether they practice either the oral or written (respectively) word.  Communities that rest on oral culture are cooed almost patronizingly for their “naturalness or naïveté,” (Chamberlin, 19). It has come as an insult as they sum up “oraliture,” the oral equivalent of literature, as simple and natural in regards to the basic skills of speaking and listening. While the written culture is praised for the intelligence and sophistication they bring forth (by exploring more thought and experiences), deeming the ability to write a more superior talent than of spoken words.

MacNeil expands this argument more elaborately in her article, focusing on the problematic aspects of Western societies’ view of oraliture. She counters by emphasizing the different cultural practices surrounding the world. Global is nothing if not the differences of the people it shelters, representing diverse kinds of societies that are neither better or lesser than others, but simply different. She also explores the consideration regarding the fact of some cultures’ inability to write themselves, not because they are uneducated and second to the Western’s capabilities, but because these cultures express themselves through art or oral like some would through writing. An example is the Haitian culture observed by Edouard Glissant. In his article he discusses the painted symbols done by the Haitians, marking their “memor[ies] significant through symbols: the essentials of a kind of historiography of the community.” In another argument is Glissant’s observation of the Haitian’s exemplary talent through their painting, “This ability to create fantasy from a difficult, even wretched, reality is the principle that J.S. Alexis had called the marvelous realism of the Haitian people.” This emphasizes that it is simply not a matter of who could write and who could not, but the importance of understanding different forms of expression.

MacNeil ends her article by pointing out how diverse the functions of communication have become, especially in the contemporary world. While storytelling began with oral and is now more popular through writing, there’s a line in between that interconnects the two forms together. In an article by Petrilli and Ponzio, they explain how global communication is now serving different kinds of purposes due to the emergence of media and new forms of technology (ie internet and cinema). They also highlight that storytelling is no longer just about one person speaking and the other listening, but the power it holds,

“This aspect distinguishes what we intend by storytelling from the type of narrativity that serves power: the power of control and punishment (the story told to the judge or police commissariat), the power of information (journalistic chronicles), the power of healing (the case history, the story that interests the psychoanalyst), the power of redeeming and saving (the story told at confession), the power of registering and of establishing the Sense of History (reconstruction of the facts by the historian, etc.).”

MacNeil addresses this similar claim by Donald Wesling and Teudeuz Slawek, “orality is not what is spoken, but what allows one to speak.”

Culture works differently through different practices and beliefs, especially on how they are expressed. Separating them in matters of what we can and cannot is not how we will be able to understand the difference. It comes down to diversity, and what we are willing to adapt to. A given society is not barbaric simply because we cannot understand their way of communication. And we are no more civilized than those who cannot practice the culture of writing. It does not make one smarter or the other stupider, it just makes us different.

Work Cited:

Chamberlin, J. Edward. If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories?: Reimagining Home and Sacred Space. Toronto, Canada: Vintage Canada, 2004. Print.

MacNeil, Courtney. “The Chicago School of Media Theory Theorizing Media.” The Chicago School of Media Theory RSS. The University of Chicago. Web. 25 May 2015.

Glissant, Edouard. “Glissant on Art.” Caribbean Discourse: Selected Essays. University Press of Virginia, 1989. Web. 25 May 2015.

Petrilli, Susan, and Augusto Ponzio. “Storytelling and the Great Narration of Global Communication.” Annali Della Facoltà Di Lingue E Letterature Straniere. Schena Editore, 2000. Web. 25 May 2015.