The Role of Orality in the Transmission of Tales: A Generational Perspective

Extract

[...] " It is in this way that the social benefit derived from the transmission of the art of storytelling is valued. The role in society of the storyteller Salabo who tells his stories in public places « On the fish market where he knew everyone (line 19, extract and his storytelling word intensifies according to the degree of frequency of the places" « he spoke at the kermesses, he spoke at the fairs, and even more at the festivals (line 24). At Chamoiseau, this public poet seems to be however linked to the figure of the cursed poet, the marginal one who needs to extract himself alone, in nature rather than among his peers (line 1 to extract who refuses the title of « Magnificent (line 15, extract and is compared to « a piece of filth from life (line 8). [...]

[...] The idea of the role of listening is already introduced by Walter Benjamin's text through the repetition of the word "ear" (lines 8 and 10). We can also consider the words of Sultan Shahryar, reported directly (lines 5 to 11) as highlighting the role of the audience, the listener. The function of listening is consecrated in the same way as that of storytelling by Philippe Campiche who speaks "to listen loudly (like one would speak loudly. His analysis on the role of the tale « this irreplaceable cloak of wisdom woven thread by thread since the night of time (lines 23 and 24, as well as that of Walter Benjamin « It is lost because we no longer listen while weaving and spinning (line 10) « the net (line 11) and this net (line 11) take up the metaphor of weaving where listening is an act as much as speaking. [...]

[...] From the observation of the difficulty of making oral transmission and listening, essential qualities for the transmission of the tale established by this corpus, these excerpts propose an analysis of the tale turned towards the future by a generational transmission embodied by a recipient and key actor in the perpetuation of the art of storytelling: the child. [...]

[...] 2nd part: different notions of the role of narrator and the recipients of transmission Beyond the means of the transmission of the tale, the act of transmitting also raises the question of the recipient. This corpus thus helps us to explore the question of transmission through the different heirs of the tale. The texts of Walter Benjamin and Philippe Campiche seem in this regard to explicitly state the social function of the tale, where transmission is carried out for the group, society. [...]

[...] More specifically, it is a matter of considering what modes of transmission of the tale are proposed by these four texts? To do this, we will first address how orality is considered as a means of transmission of the tale in this corpus, and then, in a second time, we will see how this mode of transmission is nonetheless nuanced by different notions of the role of the narrator. Part Orality as a means of transmitting the tale (common to the four texts) It is first of all by emphasizing the essential function of orality that the four texts converge in the means of transmitting the tale. [...]