ENGL 372 with Lilly Mclellan

The Mutual Interdependency of Oral and Written Culture

While reading  If This is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories? by J. Edward Chamberlin, I found his discussion of how speaking and listening are considered by many as “simple and natural” while writing and reading are considered “cultivated and complex” (19) to be enlightening, as I realized this was something I subconsciously thought as well. This was personally surprising, because I would never consider literate individuals and societies as being the only ones capable of real thought, a popular concept that he also describes (19). However, my opinion is not shared by all, and many consider oral cultures as being “imprisoned in the present, uninterested in definitions, unable to make analytic distinctions and incapable of genuine self-consciousness” (Chamberlin 19). Rather, oral culture has often been seen as no more than a functional method of promoting group solidarity and defining social norms to new generations. This perspective only acts to minimize the significance of the historically specific circumstances that promoted the production of oral literature.

As Courtney Macneil discusses in “Orality,” while orality and literacy both act as mediums of communication, it is unreasonable and incorrect to consider the two as existing in competition with one another. Classifying a society as oral or written in its culture not only suggests that a singular preference for one or the other is possible, but also that orality exists in an unequal dialectical relationship with one another. While this type of dichotomy is argued and supported by several scholars such as Harold Innis, Eric Havelock, Marshall McLuhan, and Walter Ong, recent scholars have come to question the proposed opposition between literacy and orality (Macneil). For example, Bruce Rosenberg suggested a dynamic that involves the pairing of the two mediums, laying the groundwork for considering their equivalency and mutual dependency (Macneil). Considering this, the oral and written do not need to be placed within some structures hierarchy as independent entities, as each influences the other and they continue to coexist in more forms than we realize.

orality

A distinction between the two becomes particularly unclear in modern times as we navigate the space of the internet, as social media provides the platform upon which all may share their immediate voices in written form. In other words, social media is the contemporary hybrid of the two mediums through which readers are givendirect access to the speaking subject (Macneil). In his article “Oral Culture, Literate Culture, Twitter Culture,” Alexis Madrigal describes the reemergence of oral psychodynamics in the public sphere as websites such as twitter act to provide highly conversational forms of writing, illustrating the interaction of oral and written communication. In other words, Western civilizations like to think of themselves as highly literate-thinking, while thriving upon the use of technology that employs the hybridity of orality and literature and allows individuals to share their voices and stories in written form. These “written cultures” are highly dependent on oral traditions, from the fairy tales passed down to children from their parents, to the ways in which we speak and share stories with others as adults. Further, apparent “oral cultures” contain various types of literate documentation, although in less recognizable forms. Chamberlin discusses this and explains how many of these “non-syllabic and non-alphabetic” (20) forms of writing function in the same ways for these cultures as texts do in European communities. These alternative forms of writing include intricate clothing and art, such as beaded belts or blankets and carved poles, figures, or masks, to name a few (Chamberlin 19). 

Totems: The stories they tell. Web. Accessed 27 Jan. 2020.

Take one of the most popular examples: the totem pole. Even if you’re not from Canada, you’ve probably seen them around campus. This Website has a short video with some basic information about them, and the ways that they often acts as documentation of Indigenous history. Essentially, they are the form through which West Coast First Nations began documenting historical events, and the stories of their families and clans. Whether we realize it or not, “oral culture” and “written culture” are ultimately tangled together, as spoken word and literature act as mutually dependent mediums of communication despite the common misconception that they are separate and unequal.

 

Works Cited

Chamberlin, Edward. If This is Your Land, Where are Your Stories? Finding Common Ground. AA. Knopf. Toronto. 2003. Print.

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

Madrigal, Alexis, “Oral Culture, Literate Culture, Twitter Culture.” The Atlantic. 2011. Web. 17 Jan. 2020. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/05/oral-culture-literate-culture-twitter-culture/239697/

“Sharing Oral Traditions: Telling the Modern Study of Oral Traditions.” Web. 17 Jan. 2020. http://science.jrank.org/pages/10528/Oral-Traditions-Telling-Sharing-Modern-Study-Oral-Traditions.html 

“Totems: The stories they tell.” Government of Canada. Web. 17 Jan. 2020. http://https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1472670112251/1534962082305.

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