English 724 MW 11:30 – 12:45 pm7105 H.C. White

Theory of Oral Narrative

In this seminar we will be analyzing “literature before literature”: that is, those forms of narrative that are most fully themselves when performed aloud before a listening audience. Representative examples of oral or orally-performed literature from Beowulf to the present day will be studied from a comparative perspective encompassing the Homeric epics, the Grimms’ fairy tales, modern African storytelling, and European-American balladry, among other periods and genres.Among the questions we will ask are: How is oral literature learned and passed on? What are its forms and its special rhetorical features? What are its functions in society? How creative is the individual tradition-bearer, and how significant is the supportive role of his community? What happens when sound is converted into print, or when works of oral literature influence writers working pen in hand? The central thesis to be explored, defended, or attacked is that it is the storytelling capacity (with its counterfactual mode) that defines human beings as such.

Meets with Folklore 530 (Special Topics). UW–Madison faculty from other departments who are distinguished specialists in one or another field of oral narrative will join us from time to time. Prerequisite:Graduate standing or permission of instructor

Instructor’s Contact Information

Office hours: M 2–3 pm in Memorial Union, T 1:30–2:30 pm in 6131 H.C. White Hall, and by appointment. Telephone 265–9836. Email . Personal website (in need of updating):

Books and other resources:

Books ordered for the course:

Dundes, Alan. Sacred Narrative. U of California Press. 1984.

Heaney, Seamus. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. Bilingual edition. Norton.

Lord, Albert B. The Singer of Tales. 2nd edition, ed. Stephen Mitchell & Gregory Nagy. Harvard UP, 2000.

Lüthi, Max. The European Folktale, trans. by J. Niles. Indiana UP, 1982.

Narayan, Kirin. Mondays on the Dark Night of the Moon. Oxford UP, 1997.

Niles, John D. Homo Narrans: The Poetics and Anthropology of Oral Literature. U of Pennsylvania P, 1999.

Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. Routledge, 2002.

Scheub, Harold. Story. U of Wisconsin Press, 1998.

Additional resources (some of them audio) will be available through Electronic Reserves, College Library Reserves, and the Music Library, as well as through an ad-hoc arrangement in the Departmental Library.In addition, members of the class will be asked to nominate certain works of imaginative literature (or other items) for us all to read or to become familiar with so as to be able to talk about them together in an informed way.These works may be specific to a student’s area of special interest.

Requirements:

Regular attendance. One or two oral reports. A term paper ca. 20–25 pages in length, to be presented (a) in a one-pageproposal with brief bibliography, (b) as a working draft, and (c) in a polished copy. This paper should be conceived of as either a publishable article or the basis of a dissertation chapter.

Week by week plan (subject to adjustment)

Week 1 (Jan. 22–24)Orientation to basic ideas and concepts.

Niles, Homo Narrans.

Week 2 (Jan. 29–31)Myth and its Functions.

Dundes, ed., Sacred Narrative.

Week 3 (Feb. 5–7)Literacy and orality: several perspectives.

Ong, Literacy and Orality.

Week 4 (Feb. 12–14)Oral-formulaic theory: the epic. Homer, the Balkans, and elsewhere.

Lord, The Singer of Tales.

Week 5 (Feb. 19–23)Oral theory and Beowulf: a problem case.

Niles, Homo Narrans, review chs. 3-5.

Heaney’s Beowulf; cf. Ringler’s Beowulf.

Week 6 (Feb. 16–Mar. 2)The ballad and allied forms

Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Music Library).

Bronson, The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads (Music Library).

Week 7 (Mar. 5–7)The folktale and allied forms.

Lüthi, The European Folktale.

Week 8 (Mar. 12–14)Open dates.

Proposal forterm paper due.

Week 9 (Mar. 19–21)Narrative and lyric in northern Europe.

Prof. Tom Dubois (Scandinavian Studies, Folklore). Visit on Mon. Mar. 19.

Week 10 (Mar. 26–28)Storytelling in Africa.

Prof. Harold Scheub (African Studies), Story. Visit on Monday Mar. 26.

SPRING BREAK

Week 11 (Apr. 9–11)Women’s storytelling in India.

Prof. Kirin Narayan (South & Southeast Asian Studies), Mondays on the Dark Night of the Moon. Visit on Wed. April 11.

Week 12 (Apr. 16–18)Regional lore of the Upper Midwest: jokes & anecdotes.

Prof. James Leary (Scandinavian Studies, Folklore). Visit on Wed. Apr. 18.

Week 13 (Apr. 23–25)Open dates.

Draft of term paper due.

Week 14 (Apr. 30 May 4)Open dates.

Week 15 (May 7–10)Open dates; review.

Final version of term paper due on Monday, May 14.