Lesson 1:2 – Story & Literature

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.

I was immediately intrigued by this question and I actually commented a similar question on someone else’s blog, Emilia, who presented a video that was quite beautiful of the Musqueam language being spoken. In my response, I questioned learning about an oral culture in a literary way, which I want to explore further during this blog post through the lense of the article “Orality” by Courtney MacNeil.

After reading the book by Chamberlin, where he brought up and wrote about the mistaken understanding that “oral culture” and “written culture” can be completely distinguished, I turned to the article to see if it mirrored more of my own understanding of orality and literacy in cultural settings, especially within that of the First Nations culture. Though I found the point brought up by the Toronto School of Communication about oral culture being primal in nature and a sign of less evolution, I do think that the remarks made by Ong about the two being unable to ever be equal is one that I have to agree with, as I see them as completely different entities myself. I think there still remains a large divide between oral culture and written culture that I myself find questioning.

Do not get me wrong, I do not think one to be superior of the other, I just think that they are different, both having benefits and educational values that are essential to culture and humanity as a whole. The issue with orality for me, is that as an English Literature major, and as a student graded, as in this very assignment, on my writing, that is how I have been taught to learn, and thus that is what I have been taught is education. In literature classes, we read books, usually in my experience works of fiction, and study the plots, characters, themes and symbols displayed and presented as words on the page, then we write about these things, we present our ideas as typed black and white alphabetical letters on a page to receive another alphabetical letter illustrating our intelligence level portrayed on the page. In English Literature studies, I am constantly also asked to speak and participate, for an overall graded participation, yet my spoken words are not being graded in the same way or weight as my reading comprehension and presented essays.

This comes to my point, which I am sure may be controversial and I am very open to the discussions that may come with it, that I think First Nations and Indigenous culture is one that is very difficult to be studied through the frame of literacy and English Literature. First Nations culture is one that is rooted in orality, from legends, to dances, to stories and shared language.  First Nations culture is a performative one that is highly presentational, shared and everything has a story as presented in this video of three Musqueam people singing the traditional paddle song, that I think is something that is lost when studying this oral culture through a written one. I think it is a culture that deserves so much justice and recognition for its ancient roots and preservation, however I struggle with how to truly learn about a purely oral culture through the studying of words. To me, English Literature, with emphasis on the literature component, is the study of written texts and above all, novels. Even within this course, we are reading mostly articles, and furthermore many of the articles we are reading about Indigenous culture are written by non-Indigenous people. I think it is really hard to fully get rid of the line that distinguishes both oral and written culture, as when studying one through the other and vice versa, I believe that the essence of each is ultimately lost.

This link that I found on the UBC website aligns more closely with how I see orality and literacy culture, as complementary yet different, not having one without the other yet at the same time being very different forms of presentation. It also places the orality of First Nations culture into this framework which I thought really tied into not only my argument but this course as a whole!

I realize that this disagrees with the presented question, however it is a point that I wanted to bring up and discuss further, as I don’t necessarily agree with Chamberlin and his examination of orality and written culture, yet also do not agree with Ong and his claims against it. Studying the distinctly oral culture of the First Nations people in Canada through written text, in my opinion, will never replace or even begin to scratch the surface of the true nature and depth of this culture, however I am excited to continue to learn English Literature in a new way and hopefully see more of these intersecting lines between orality and literacy and the study of each throughout this course.

Link Citation

Hansen, Eric. “Oral Traditions.” Indigenousfoundations, UBC Arts, indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/oral_traditions/.

Point, Cecilia. “2018 Musqueam Paddle Song.” YouTube, SAGAcom Productions, 28 Feb. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=w93v8zo-85E.