Leslie Marmon Silko: Reading, Writing, and Storytelling

Abstract

acteristics of the Laguna Pueblo oral tradition. The video is an important document in that it functions as an oral counterpart to Silko's published work especially because all the pieces Silko reads or tells in front of the camera also appear in some version in her 1981 collection of stories and poems, Storyteller. The film, therefore, provides a unique opportunity for exploring the dynamic relationship among oral storytelling, reading, and writing in Silko's work; it allows for mapping out the specific changes which occur when the oral performance is codified in writing, as well as when the written version of an oral story is reintroduced into the performance context of the poetry reading. The relationship between oral performance and written text (and between oral and literate culture) has long been a matter of controversy. Folklorists have frequently complained that the inadequate transcription of oral texts, which leaves out their extratextual characteristics, renders these texts flat, and allows for gross misinterpretations of their stylistic features and aesthetic value (Fine 4-15, Tedlock 32). In an attempt to promote a performative approach to transcription and translation, Elizabeth Fine systematizes the different channels available in oral performance and in print. On the performance side, she lists three broad groups: (1) aural: linguistic (phonemes, morphemes, and words) and paralinguistic (vocalizations and voice qualities); (2) visual: kinesic (bodily movements), artifactual (use of objects), and proxemic (physical setting); (3)