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TENTATIVE PROGRAMME

LLCU 301/3.0 Oral Tradition and Innovation in

Cultural Transmission

Winter 2021

Consultation time: Wednesday 11:30-12:20am

Kingston, Ontario Time

(or corresponding time in other time zones)

Location: Remote deliver

Instructor: Dr. Daniel Chamberlain

Email: CHAMBERL@queensu.ca

Course DescriptionThis course offers an introduction to the role that narrative storytelling and other oral events play in the celebration and transmission of culture. Although course considerations may come to bear on several fields of study, its concern and focus is on language, culture and oral media as elaborated in the first weeks of lectures.

Intended Student Learning Outcomes: This is a general introduction to how celebrations of language through verse, storytelling, song, and other narrative forms in different media play an important role in integrating, fostering, and transmitting cultural values and norms. It examines an array of oral traditions and innovations past and present in a selection of American, European and African contexts as well as their interaction when different cultures meet. Students are expected to develop an awareness of orality’s role in cultural transmission, as well as in everyday cultural interaction and an understanding of the issues introduced by changes in storytelling media. They are expected to question and re-examine commonly held assumptions regarding the role of writing and the role of orality in culture. They are also expected to identify similarities and differences that mediate oral traditions and innovations in multiple cultural settings and relate them to contemporary Canadian concerns.

Method: This course involves a substantial amount of careful reading and questioning of an array of approaches to orality in different temporal and geographic settings. All reading material for the course can be found in the Contents section of OnQ. Students are responsible for preparing each indicated reading unit carefully and for watching posted video lectures. Students can write down any questions relative to their readings or the lecture videos and e-mail them to the professor or consult during the regularly scheduled consultation time. Consultation will be restricted to the posted time. This “consultation time” mentioned on the cover page of the course outline refers to what would be an “office hour” if we were to be meeting on campus in Kingston Hall. As with any office hour, it is totally voluntary, it is not evaluated for marks and it does not contribute to a “participation” grade in any way. The consultation time is for students who may have a question about the material under consideration. Most of your questions can be answered with a brief e-mail message but on occasion, a student might want to chat directly with me. In that case, the student can send me an e-mail message a day or two beforehand indicating that he or she would like to consult during the posted time (i.e. “office hour”) and I can set up a meeting via Microsoft Teams. 

Students will also be asked to work with a classmate via e-mail or other virtual media to prepare and submit a summary of one of the reading topics. The teams and topics will be assigned within the first weeks of the course. Teams will be asked to submit a brief written or PowerPoint summary of the main points of one of the OnQ readings or course topics. Two examples of summary presentations submitted by students in previous years have been posted to OnQ to for your perusal. The assignment must be submitted by a firm deadline for posting to OnQ. This submitted assignment corresponds to what would be the “participation” component of the course if it were to be held in a classroom on campus.

Readings: - There is no textbook for this course. Required weekly reading material is available in the Content section of the LLCU 301 Winter 2020 segment of “onQ”. A bibliography of supplementary reading material is also included for those who want to explore oral traditions and innovations further.

Course Evaluation:

There are three brief tests on the reading material topics posted to OnQ and on the video lectures (see General Outline below for approximately when tests will be given). Tests involve a straightforward, information based, "multiple choice/select the correct answer" question format. They are designed to determine if the student has an adequate command of the posted OnQ material as well as of the video lecture considerations. The tests also seek to ascertain whether the student has questioned and re-examined commonly held assumptions regarding the role of writing and the role of orality in culture.

Student teams also receive a mark for the brief reading-summary assignment mentioned above. Please note that the assignment must be submitted by the due date so do not leave it until the last minute. Prepare and submit it promptly for posting to OnQ. Material from these presentations posted to OnQ may also be included in the three brief tests.

1) Brief tests: 3 x 30= 90%

2) PowerPoint or written summary presentation submitted by due date: 1 x 10= 10%

All course evaluation components will receive numerical percentage marks. The final grade you receive for the course will be derived by converting your numerical course average to a letter grade according to Queen’s Official Grade Conversion Scale:

Grade

Numerical Course Average (Range)

A+

90-100

A

85-89

A-

80-84

B+

77-79

B

73-76

B-

70-72

C+

67-69

C

63-66

C-

60-62

D+

57-59

D

53-56

D-

50-52

F

49 and below

Please Note:

Statement on Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity is constituted by the six core fundamental values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage (see www.academicintegrity.org). These values are central to the building, nurturing and sustaining of an academic community in which all members of the community will thrive. Adherence to the values expressed through academic integrity forms a foundation for the "freedom of inquiry and exchange of ideas" essential to the intellectual life of the University (see the Senate Report on Principles and Priorities http://www.queensu.ca/secretariat/policies/senate/report-principles-and-priorities).

Students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the regulations concerning academic integrity and for ensuring that their assignments conform to the principles of academic integrity. Information on academic integrity is available in the Arts and Science Calendar (see Academic Regulation 1 http://www.queensu.ca/artsci/academic-calendars/regulations/academic-regulations/regulation-1), on the Arts and Science website (see http://www.queensu.ca/artsci/academics/undergraduate/academic-integrity), and from the instructor of this course. Departures from academic integrity include plagiarism, use of unauthorized materials, facilitation, forgery and falsification, and are antithetical to the development of an academic community at Queen's. Given the seriousness of these matters, actions which contravene the regulation on academic integrity carry sanctions that can range from a warning or the loss of grades on an assignment to the failure of a course to a requirement to withdraw from the university.

Disability Services

Queen's University is committed to achieving full accessibility for people with disabilities. Part of this commitment includes arranging academic accommodations for students with disabilities to ensure they have an equitable opportunity to participate in all of their academic activities. The Senate Policy for Accommodations for Students with Disabilities was approved at Senate in November 2016 (see https://www.queensu.ca/secretariat/sites/webpublish.queensu.ca.uslcwww/files/files/policies/senateandtrustees/ACADACCOMMPOLICY2016.pdf). If you are a student with a disability and think you may need academic accommodations, you are strongly encouraged to contact the Queen's Student Accessibility Services (QSAS) and register as early as possible.  For more information, including important deadlines, please visit the QSAS website at:  http://www.queensu.ca/studentwellness/accessibility-services/

Academic Consideration for Students with Extenuating Circumstances

Queen’s University is committed to providing academic consideration to students experiencing extenuating circumstances that are beyond their control and are interfering with their ability to complete academic requirements related to a course for a short period of time, not to exceed three months. Students receiving academic consideration must meet all essential requirements of a course. The Senate Policy on Academic Consideration for Students in Extenuating Circumstances was approved at Senate in April, 2017 (see http://www.queensu.ca/secretariat/sites/webpublish.queensu.ca.uslcwww/files/files/policies/senateandtrustees/Academic%20Considerations%20for%20Extenuating%20Circumstances%20Policy%20Final.pdf). Each Faculty has developed a protocol to provide a consistent and equitable approach in dealing with requests for academic consideration for students facing extenuating circumstances. Arts and Science undergraduate students can find the Faculty of Arts and Science protocol and the portal where a request can be submitted at: http://www.queensu.ca/artsci/accommodations. Students in other Faculties and Schools who are enrolled in this course should refer to the protocol for their home Faculty.

If you need to request academic consideration for this course, you will be required to provide the name and email address of the instructor/coordinator. Please use the following: Instructor/Coordinator Name: Professor Daniel ChamberlainInstructor/Coordinator email address: chamberl@queensu.ca

Copyright of Course Material

This material is copyrighted and is for the sole use of students registered in LLCU 301. This material shall not be distributed or disseminated to anyone other than students registered in LLCU 301. Failure to abide by these conditions is a breach of copyright and may also constitute a breach of academic integrity under the University Senate’s Academic Integrity Policy Statement.

Discussion Guidelines

University is a place to share, question and challenge ideas. Each student brings a different lived experience from which to draw upon. To help one another learn the most we can from this experience please consider the following guidelines.

1. Make a personal commitment to learn about, understand, and support your peers.

1. Assume the best of others and expect the best of them.

1. Acknowledge the impact of oppression on the lives of other people and make sure your writing is respectful and inclusive.

1. Recognize and value the experiences, abilities, and knowledge each person brings.

1. Pay close attention to what your peers write before you respond. Think through and re-read your writings before you post or send them to others.

1. It’s ok to disagree with ideas, but do not make personal attacks.

1. Be open to being challenged or confronted on your ideas and to challenging others with the intent of facilitating growth. Do not demean or embarrass others.

1. Encourage others to develop and share their ideas.

LLCU 301: General Outline, Winter Term 2021

This outline is TENTATIVE and flexible. Please note that the delivery of this course without the usual classroom interaction is new for many and presents unique challenges. Patience is recommended and appreciated.

Prerequisite independent reading: Please read Daniel Heath Justice: “Significant Spaces Between. Making Room for Silence.” It is an excellent introduction not only to some of the fundamental principles of oral culture but also to the spirit of the course.

Week  1 Introduction: What are we getting into?

-Language (W. Von Humboldt);

- “Oral?”, “Tradition?”, “Innovation?”, “Culture?”, “Transmission?”.

- Clifford Geertz on Culture

Week  2  Storytelling in Early Records:

1-History of orality & Oral History; Plato

http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/phaedrus.html or

http://sparks.eserver.org/books/plato-phaedrus.pdf

2-History of writing & Writing of History; Herodotus; 

Week  3  Storytelling Between Worlds:

3-The jester in Lord & Parry 

4- Writing at war with Orality: Tsvetan Todorov & The Conquest [??] of America

                                 

Week  4  Transmission transformation:        

5-David Olson The World on Paper    

6-The Toronto School of Communication

(-M. McLuhan, 1977 Lecture  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImaH51F4HBw

Quiz  

Week  5  The Fall of Storytelling???

7-Walter Benjamin -The Storyteller: 

http://ada.evergreen.edu/~arunc/texts/frankfurt/storyteller.pdf

Week  6  Storytelling, Performance, & Rhythm    

Africa teaches- Walter Ong listens…sort of                      

8-Questioning W. Ong, Interfaces of the Word & his characteristics of oral cultures 

9- María Luisa Martínez Montiel: African Orality in the Literary Culture of the Caribbean. 

                                                                     

Week  7  Reading Week

Week  8   Storytelling & Song; Land and Nation          

10-J E. Chamberlin: If this is Your Land Where Are Your Stories?

11-Camargos Walty, Ivete Lara. Oral Narrative & land in Brazil     

Week  9  Storytelling in the Workplace                 

12-J.E. Chamberlin: ‘Hunting, Tracking and Reading’,  

13-Reading on the job:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8406641.stm

Quiz  

                          

Week  10        14-Questioning the Writing vs Orality myth:

Marcel Jousse & Edgard Sienaert Leveling the Playing field: http://mimopedagogie.pagesperso-orange.fr/Auteurs/Divers/SienaertToronto060208.pdf

Week  11       Storytelling and the Internet  

15-The Sami Yoik:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPqKAuzo0tk

                        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT0WRjUcJVU

16-From the Árran to the Internet: Sami Storytelling in

Digital Environments

 http://journal.oraltradition.org/issues/28i/cocq#myGallery-picture(3)

Week 12 Storytelling and Resistance         

-Communication Technology and Political Change

               17-W. Mignolo & E. H. Boone : Writing Without Words            

                18-Rigoberto Menchu: Testimony and getting the story “right”

Week 13Storytelling and Community   

19-K. Martin. Stories in a New Skin: Approaches to Inuit Literature

http://ia601605.us.archive.org/19/items/StoriesInANewSkin/KeavyMartinMixdown.mp3

Quiz  

General Background BibliographyAside from distributed texts and recommended internet resources, students will find material for their oral presentations in the following list of material.

Benjamin, Walter. The Storyteller: Reflections on the Works of Nikolai Leskov.

http://slought.org/files/downloads/events/SF_1331-Benjamin.pdf [Accessed 1 September, 2013].

Bersalorismo. lasarte: hango eta hemengo 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV-TJn4BEoc [Accessed 1 September 2013]

Burke, K., n.d. The Sami Yoik, [online] Sami Culture. Available at: [Accessed 10 February, 2011].

Camargos Walty, Ivete Lara. 2004. Textuality and Territoriality in Brazilian Oral Discourse. In Literary Cultures of Latin America: A Comparative History.Mario J. Valdés and Djelal Kadir, eds., 1: 504-12 Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cavell, Richard. McLuhan in Space: A Cultural Geography. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2003

Chamberlain, Daniel F. and J. Edward Chamberlin. Or words to that effect. Orality and the Writing of Literary History. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2016

Chamberlin, J. Edward. 2003. If this Is Your Land, Where AreYour Stories?: Finding Common Ground. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf.

---. ‘Hunting, Tracking and Reading’, Literacy, Narrative and Culture, eds. Jens Brockmeier, David R. Olson, Min Wang (London: Curzon Press, 2001), pp. 67-85

Dauenhauer, N. M. and Dauenhauer, R., 1994. Haa k̲usteeyí, Our Culture: Tlingit Life Stories. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

De Kock, Leon. 2006. Naming of Parts, or, How Things Shape Up in Transcultural literary History. In Studying Transcultural Literary History. Gunilla Lindberg-Wada ed. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

Dueck, Daniela. Geography in classical antiquity. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Furet, François and Jacques Ozouf. Reading and Writing. Cambridge, 1982

Grosser Lerner, E. and Lucio Molina y Vedia, E., 2004. Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay: A History of Literary Orality. In M.J. Valdés and D. Kadir, 2004. Literary Cultures of Latin America: A Comparative History. Volume 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 483-95.

Hale, Thomas A. Griots and griottes : masters of words and music. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c1998.

Hartog, F., 1988. Herodotus: Representation of the Other in the Writing of History. Translated by J. Lloyd. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Hill Boone, Elizabeth and Walter D. Mignolo. 1994. Writing Without Words: Alteranative Literacies in Mesoamerica & the Andes. Durham: Duke UP.

Humboldt, Wilhelm. On Language: On the Diversity of Human Language Construction and its Influence on the Mental Development of the Human Species. Ed. Michael Losonsky. Trans. Peter Heath. Intro. Hans Aarsleff. Cambridge: CUP, 1988. Rpt. 1999.

Jannok. Sofia., 2007. Yoik of the Wind. Tällberg Foundation. [video online] Available at: [Accessed 14 November, 2010].

Jones-Bamman, R., In K. Burke, n.d. The Sami Yoik. Sami Culture. [online] Available at: [Accessed 10 February, 2011].

Jousse, M., Selected Quotations by Marcel Jousse. On defining his Anthropology as Dynamic… [online] Available at: < http://www.marceljousse.co.za/home.html > [Accessed 4 April, 2011].

Justice, D. H., 2006. Our Fire Survives the Storm: A Cherokee Literary History. University of Minnesota Press

Länsman, U., In K. Burke, n.d. The Sami Yoik. Sami Culture. [online] Available at: [Accessed 10 February, 2011].

Lord, Albert B. 1988. The Singer of Tales (Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Liebenberg, Louis. 1990. The Art of Tracking: The Origin of Science. Cape Town: David Philip.

Martin. Keavy. 2012. Stories in a New Skin: Approaches to Inuit Literature. U of Manitoba P.

Martín-Barbero, Jesús. Popuar Memory and the Collective Imagination in Latin American Soap Operas. In Mario J. Valdés and Djelal Kadir, eds., 2004. Literary Cultures of Latin America: A Comparative History. Vol. 1 Oxford: Oxford University Press, 630- 39.

Martínez Montiel, Luz María. African Orality in the Literary Culture of the Caribbean. In Mario J. Valdés and Djelal Kadir, eds., 2004. Literary Cultures of Latin America: A Comparative History. Vol. 1 Oxford: Oxford University Press, 460-70.

Manrique Castañeda. Leonardo. The History of Oral Literature in Mexico. In Mario J. Valdés and Djelal Kadir, eds., 2004. Literary Cultures of Latin America: A Comparative History. Vol. 1 Oxford: Oxford University Press, 436-59.

McLuhan, Marhall. Full lecture: The medium is the message - 1977 . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImaH51F4HBw [Accessed 2 September, 2013.]

Meyer, Eugenia. Orality and Literature: Introduction. In Mario J. Valdés and Djelal Kadir, eds., 2004. Literary Cultures of Latin America: A Comparative History. Vol. 1 Oxford: Oxford University Press, 431-35.

Momaday, N. Scott. 1987. The Native Voice. In Emory Elliott. ed., 1987. Columbia literary History of the United States. New York: Columbia University Press, 5-15.

Olson, David R. 1996. The World on Paper: The Conceptual and Cognitive Implications of Writing and Reading. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ogborn. Miles, The power of speech: orality, oaths and evidence in the British Atlantic world, 1650–1800. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers (January 2011), 36 (1), pg. 109-125 

Ong S.J., Walter J. 1977. Interfaces of the Word: Studies in the Evolution of Consciousness and Culture. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

---.1982. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London: Methuen.

Pires Ferreira, Jesusa. Oral Literature in Brazil. In Mario J. Valdés and Djelal Kadir, eds., 2004. Literary Cultures of Latin America: A Comparative History. Vol. 1 Oxford: Oxford University Valdés, M. J. and Kadir, D., 2004. Literary Cultures of Latin America: A Comparative History. Volume 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

“Plato: the Present Representation of an Absent Thing” in Ricoeur, P., 2004. Memory, History Forgetting. Translated by Kathleen McLaughlin & David Pellauer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Ryan, Marie-Laure. ed. 2004. Narrative Across Media: The Languages of Storytelling. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Schacker, Jennifer. 2003. National Dreams: The Remaking of Fairy Tales in Nineteenth- Century England. Philadelphia; University of Philadelphia Press.

Seoism. Sami Singing a Yoik. 2009. [video online] Available at: [Accessed 22 May, 2009].

Sieneart, E., 2006. Levelling the Oral-Literate Playing Field: Marcel Jousse’s Laboratory of Awareness. [online] Available at: [Accessed 10 August, 2010].

Somby. Á., In K. Burke, n.d. The Sami Yoik. Sami Culture. [online] Available at: [Accessed 10 February, 2011].

Todorov, Tsvetan. 1984. The Conquest of America. The Question of the Other. New York: Harper & Row.

Valkeapää. Aslak. In C. L. Krumhansl et al., 2000. Cross-cultural music cognition: cognitive methodology applied to North Sami yoiks. Cognition, [online] Available at: < http://jyu.academia.edu/TuomasEerola/Papers/450414/Cross-cultural_music_cognition_Cognitive_methodology_applied_to_North_Sami_yoiks> [Accessed 4 April 2011].

Washington, Denzel. Anansi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChbxNzwqQ8c [Accessed 3 September 2013]

Weiner. James F. The empty place : poetry, space, and being among the Foi of Papua New Guinea. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991.

Woolf, Virginia. 1929. A Room of One’s Own. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.

You, Haili. 1994. Defining Rhythm: Aspects of an Anthropology of Rhythm. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 18: 361-84