{"id":38,"date":"2020-02-22T19:25:24","date_gmt":"2020-02-23T02:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sashini\/?p=38"},"modified":"2020-02-22T19:25:24","modified_gmt":"2020-02-23T02:25:24","slug":"assignment-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sashini\/2020\/02\/22\/assignment-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Assignment 2:6"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his article, \u201cGodzilla vs. Post-Colonial,\u201d King discusses Robinson\u2019s collection of stories. King explains that while the stories are written in English, \u201cthe patterns, metaphors, structures as well as the themes and characters come primarily from oral literature.\u201d More than this, Robinson, he says \u201cdevelops what we might want to call an <\/span>oral syntax that defeats reader\u2019s efforts to read the stories silently<\/span><\/i> to themselves, a syntax that encourages readers to read aloud\u201d and in so doing, \u201c<\/span>recreating at once the storyteller and the performance<\/span><\/i>\u201d (186). Read \u201cCoyote Makes a Deal with King of England\u201d, in <\/span>Living by Stories<\/span><\/i>. Read it silently, read it out loud, read it to a friend, and have a friend read it to you. <\/span>See if you can discover how this oral syntax works to shape meaning for the story by shaping your reading and listening of the story.<\/span><\/i> Write a blog about this reading\/listening experience that provides references to both King;s article and Robinson’s story.<\/span><\/p>\n

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This was an interesting assignment because I never thought to explore literature that was meant for orality, and taking note of the differences, and it was quite an experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reading to myself, proved a bit difficult as the sentences were short and abrupt, and it was impossible to gain sense of where and how without the gestures. For example, when Harry Robinson writes phrases such as, \u201cFor a long time, Coyote was there\/ on the water sitting on the boat.\/ And he eat right there\u201d (64).\u00a0 My mind stopped and would question, where exactly? It was hard to take any meaning out of the story reading silently, because it was missing the gestures. Without gestures, it was hard to paint a full picture. What is where, and where exactly is the water? It almost seemed like floating words that were missing a meaning.\u00a0 It was similar to what Thomas King said was the common complaint of oral literature, being translated to English, the storyteller lost their voice (King 184). Another thing I noticed was because I am a fast reader, the story lost its excitement because the anticipation of what is happening was lost when I silently read to myself.\u00a0 It seemed repetitive and lost its appeal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When I read out loud to myself, it was similar to reading silently, I saw the words before me and it was not as exciting.\u00a0 I was speed reading again, and did not make the effort to add gestures or music, or interact with my audience, because my audience was myself.\u00a0 I did not feel the need to create any suspense, as the words were right in front of me. What lacked from this experience was the suspense, and captivation of listening to a story as gestures, pauses, and interactions that would go with saying this story out loud, were missing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My favourite experience was getting my friend to read the story to me. Because my friend had an audience, who was intently listening (me), he made more of an effort to keep me engaged.\u00a0 He paused at the right moments, which created suspense. And he was able to paint a picture of what he was reading with his hands. The oral syntax aspect of it took me on a journey and placed me at the center of the story. \u00a0 It emphasized the polemical and associational literature and let me understand the story and its historical aspect in a \u201cMetamorphosis\u201d way (King 187). The polemical aspect was underlined because reading it out loud emphasized Native values (peace and acceptance, such as not going to war with the King of England, is possible).\u00a0 The Coyote going to the King showed their way of resistance to the invaders. Reading it out loud \u201crecreated the storyteller and the performance\u201d (King 186). In the Youtube video of a TEDxSMU talk show, Seth Fairchild describes how when an Native elder dies, history dies as well with it. And how important it is to hear them, as there is a magical element about it that is important to pass down.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall, the story was more inviting and engaging while listening to someone read it out loud.\u00a0 What is interesting that I learned from another Tedx Talk, is that hormones and neurotransmitters are released, the same ones you experience when you are in love, during storytelling. Storytelling is powerful, and it feels good.\u00a0 Perhaps that is why there is a connection and engagement that is lacking in written language, that is evident in oral storytelling.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Works Cited<\/p>\n

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Fairchild, Seth. \u201cNative American Oral Storytelling & History.\u201d\u00a0TedxSMU<\/i>, Youtube, 3 Nov. 2015, www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6JcKbN_GjCE.<\/p>\n

King, Thomas. \u201cGodzilla vs. Post-Colonial.\u201d\u00a0Unhomely States: Theorizing English-Canadian Postcolonialism<\/i>. Mississauga, ON: Broadview, 2004. 183- 190.<\/p>\n

Phillips, David JP. \u201cThe Magical Science of Storytelling.\u201d\u00a0TedxStockholm<\/i>, Youtube, 16 Mar. 2017, www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Nj-hdQMa3uA.<\/p>\n

Robinson, Harry. \u201cCoyote Makes a Deal with the King Of England.\u201d\u00a0Living by Stories: a Journey of Landscape and Memory.\u00a0<\/i>Ed.\u00a0<\/i>Wendy Wickwire. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2005. 64-85.<\/p>\n

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In his article, \u201cGodzilla vs. Post-Colonial,\u201d King discusses Robinson\u2019s collection of stories. King explains that while the stories are written in English, \u201cthe patterns, metaphors, structures as well as the themes and characters come primarily from oral literature.\u201d More than this, Robinson, he says \u201cdevelops what we might want to call an oral syntax that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70152,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sashini\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sashini\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sashini\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sashini\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sashini\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sashini\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sashini\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions\/39"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sashini\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sashini\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sashini\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}