Words we speak are also "literature". But the texture of oral literature is more than written words; it also includes sounds and physical movements. In this it is much richer than written literature, which can only use letters of the alphabet on a printed or virtual page.

But writing is still the most efficient medium for storing and retrieving human knowledge, including our spoken folklore. So, we need to turn the sounds we hear into writing. And we need to write it ("transcribe" it) so that a future reader can "hear" the spoken words that we hear.

How?

This lecture explores oral literature's literary characteristics, and ways of transcribing spoken performances.

Reading

Lecture 10 Powerful Words, Spoken and Written— Estimated time: 30 minutes

John Miles Foley, (2002) “Ethnopoetics” in How to Read an Oral Poem, pages 95-102
[Read before Lecture 10: Part 1]

PDF File : Foley_2002_4_Ethnopoetics_ProcopeTranscript.pdf

Henry Glassie, (2013) "Flanagan interviews" pages 20-37 and "Performance" pages 76-95 in All Silver & No Brass
[Read before Lecture 10: Part 2]

This book is available only in paper format. In case your copy is being delivered late, here is a copy of the interviews, and here's a copy of the chapter about "Performance"

Rationale: Putting spoken words into writing is a challenge. Compare two attempts: Foley uses fonts and formatting to describe the texture of a spoken poem, and Glassie describes context to show how oral poems were created in performance.

Foley's ethnopoetics example:

External Link : Foley's example: Lynn Procope, “Elemental Woman,” online resource

Lecture

In Part 1 of this lecture, I look at John Miles Foley's introduction to "ethnopoetics," and I study his example: an oral poem.

I hope you'll also read his transcript while you watch and listen to his viderecording of that slam poetry performance (see the video posted at this link). Then, can you read his transcript out loud, making it sound like Lynne Procope's voice during her performance? That's what I attempt to do here.

While you're listening to the lecture, start making plans for your first field assignment:

How will you transcribe the words of a person you interview? Help your reader "hear" them. But don't confuse your reader with overly complicated symbols...

Part 2: Our descriptions of oral poetry need to go beyond ethnopoetic transcription of one person's words. Mummers "performed" their rhymes to living people, and those performers and audiences responded to each other.

How did live performance affect the texts of mummers' rhymes?

Bonus

Listen to my conversation with Henry Glassie, remembering the texture of mummers' rhymes (approximately 21:15-27:45):

Read about the texture of rap, a vibrant genre of Amercan oral poety.

Adam Bradley, “Rap Poetry 101,” pages xi-xxiv in Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop (2009).
- examples quoted by Bradley:
  Jimmy Spicer, "Adventures of Super Rhyme" (1980)
- Grand Master Flash & the Furious Five: The Message

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