Oral poetry as easy as the Internet

In high schools and universities across the country, literature faculty require students to read such classic oral poems as the Iliad, the Odyssey and Beowulf. Oral poetry, though, is hard for some people to grasp because so much in today’s society is written. The director of the University of Missouri-Columbia’s Center for Studies in Oral Tradition recently published a handbook for the "too literate" student.

"Too many authors of books about oral poetry assume that their readers have some prior experience or training in the subject, making it difficult or impossible for the non-specialist to enter the conversation," said John Miles Foley, Curators' and Byler Professor of Classical Studies and English. "No prerequisite other than an interest in verbal art and human nature is necessary to understand this book. It aspires to be a ‘good read’ for anyone in search of learning more about the human expressive arts."

In his book, How to Read an Oral Poem, Foley draws from dozens of examples, including a North American slam poet, a Tibetan paper-singer, Mayan storytelling, South Slavic oral poetry and an ancient Greek bard. He explains that although oral poetry long predates the invention of writing, it continues to be a vital culture-making and communications tool in societies around the world. In fact, Foley believes the Internet is much like oral poetry.

"Although they may seem media-generations divorced from one another, the truth is that both the Internet and oral poetry depend on links rather than items, on connections rather than spatialized, warehousable objects," Foley said. "Like the Internet we browse, learn from and purchase on – oral poetry amounts to a linked series of pathways. In both media the goal is never an object, and getting there is more than half the fun."

Practicing that philosophy, Foley enhanced his book by including audio and video examples of oral poetry, which are available at www.oraltradition.org. At this Web site, the reader also will discover a searchable, annotated bibliography and other opportunities to deepen and enrich the ideas presented in the book.

Barre Toelken of Utah State University, one of the world's leading folklorists, calls How to Read an Oral Poem "the most brilliant book in the field." And an internationally known classicist Richard Martin of Stanford University says, "John Foley is unmatched in his knowledge of worldwide oral traditions."

The Center for Studies in Oral Tradition was founded in 1986, as a response to an increasing national and international focus on MU as a leader in research and scholarship pertaining to oral tradition. It is the only center of its kind in the United States. The center produces the journal Oral Tradition, the only journal exclusively devoted to the field of oral tradition. It has established linkages with major universities in such cities as Beijing, Grenoble, and Helsinki.

Additional links:

Department of Classical Studies
Department of English
Center for Studies in Oral Tradition
How to Read an Oral Poem companion Web

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