Canadian Literature Blog

Question: Why is 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.” 

Throughout this blog post, the notion of “oral cultures” and “written cultures” being their own separate entities, completely detached from one another will be attempted to be debunked. The writings of J. Edward Chamberlin and “Orality” written by Courtney MacNeil are two avenues of information that offer the reader so much insight into this particular affair. Where a lot of issues arise on this topic is the notion of cultures being defined by their modes of communication. Cultures can clearly be both “Oral” and “Written” as both oral and written mediums are quite apparent in every culture. 

J. Edward Chamberlin is a professor in the English Department and Center for Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto. His areas of research include: Modernist and Contemporary poetry, Caribbean literature, Indigenous literatures, Oral and Written traditions, and stories/storytelling. He has comprehensive publications on the oral and written histories of Indigenous peoples and provides very important commentary and criticism on their misrepresentation and mistreatment. Something that Chamberlin unpacks in both his novel and interview, is the act of holding oral culture and written culture on opposing grounds creates an “us” versus them” psychology of ostracizing.

Courtney MacNeil speaks on similar grounds to this statement. In her article “Orality,” she draws on an example proposed by John Miles Foley, something he calls “The Great Divide” between written and oral traditions, and how this “unequal dichotomy” promotes the “notion of orality as a primtive or underdeveloped medium” (MacNeil, 2007.) I can’t help but agree with her. As the world continues on its path of “evolutionary progress,” the value and virtue of oral traditions is buried deep within the suppressed cultures of those we have oppressed. 

Now, with this being said, of course in the West we view ourselves as the farthest thing from “underdeveloped” or “primitive,” so there is no shock that students are being taught to regard “oral” cultures and “written” cultures as two separate things. The way it is distributed to the masses is through a filter which promotes “oral” culture to be viewed as one tied to myths and fantasy, stories holding little to no validity or verifiable truth; whereas “written” culture is the only medium where facts and proper statistics are supplied.

Culture is much too complex to be broken into these two dichotomies as MacNeil puts it. There are too many variables to be taken into account. In her paper titled “The Relationship between the Oral and Written mode of communication within the fabric of Western Based Society,” Sharon McLeod helps summarize this point further by saying “…oral narratives continue to be dominated by the written mode of communication which inadvertently serves as justification for the propagation of the dichotomy between the two” (Mcleod, 2006.) I hope that this is more frequently a topic of future discussions as it will help provide a more inclusive and legitimate perspective of “oral’ and “written” cultures.

Works Cited

Chamberlin, Edward. “Interview with J. Edward Chamberlin”. Writer’s Café.  Web April 04 2013.

McLeod, S.”THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ORAL AND WRITTEN MODE OF COMMUNICATION WITHIN THE FABRIC OF WESTERN BASED SOCIETY” (August, 2006.) http://dtpr.lib.athabascau.ca/action/download.php?filename=mais/sharonmcleodProject.pdf

Courtney MacNeil, “Orality.” The Chicago School of Media Theory. Uchicagoedublogs. 2007. Web. 19 Feb. 2013.http://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/mediatheory/keywords/orality/

Hi everyone!

My name is Aidan McConnell. I am a Cultural Studies Major in my fourth year at UBC. Living in North Vancouver, I have fallen in love with the coastal mountains I have been surrounded by for the past decade. Living on and around these mountains, I have developed a passion for skiing and mountain biking. 

I grew up in Toronto, Ontario and moved out west in the summer of 7th Grade. Coming from Ontario, I didnt have much knowledge of Canadian History and its cultural background. Since moving to Vancouver, I have been exposed to so much more of our countries colonial history. I was falsely lead to believe Canada, in regards to our neighbours to the south, was a country built with a rigid moral structure. Throughout my years at UBC I have been privileged enough to have been shown how this is not the case, and exposed to our rather dark past.

Image Taken by me at the mouth of the Capilano River.

As mentioned before, I am living in North Vancouver, just a couple-minute walk from the Capilano Suspension Bridge and the Capilano River Hatchery. These are two very popular tourist attractions and I would just like to share with you quickly the history of these two landmarks as it is something I did not know about myself until recently. The name Capilano belongs to the Squamish Nation, originally being spelt as “Kia’palano” which means “beautiful river” and was the name of a former Squamish chief that lived in this area in the 1800’s. A team, lead by another Squamish chief named August Jack Khahtsahlano were responsible for the swimming of the ropes to support the bridge across the treacherous river. Just up-river from the Suspension Bridge, lies the Salmon Hatchery. This offers a very informative viewing experience for visitors explaining the hatching process of the different fish that come here to spawn, and in the fall, salmon returning to the Capilano River provide an important food, social and ceremonial fishery for the Squamish First Nation.

To my understanding, this course is about revisiting Canadian Literature through a historical lens. Together, we will look at a broad range of stories from both settler, and Indigenous writers and draw our attention to why certain stories spend so much time under the spotlight, and others do not. 

I am very much looking forward to reading and dissecting the various course readings with you all via our blogs. Being a Cultural Studies major I have read many papers and books on this topic at hand, as well as written papers on the subject, but I am excited to further my knowledge and understanding of Canadian Literature and its history. Something I am especially looking forward to is taking a deeper look into the stories that we are most commonly shown to us, but more importantly looking into the stories that are not show to us so regularly. I strongly believe that in order to be informed and conscious of Canada’s history, it is crucial to have an understanding of both of these stories, those that are shown and those that are not.

Works Cited

Our History: Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16, 2021, from https://www.capbridge.com/our-story/history/

Government of Canada, F. (2020, November 09). Capilano River Hatchery. Retrieved January 16, 2021, from https://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/sep-pmvs/projects-projets/capilano/capilano-eng.html

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