Oral Tradition: A Definition

Abstract

Oral Tradition: A Definition Carlos Nogueira (bio) What is oral tradition? In the vast system of forms and modes of communication denominated by the syntagma “oral” tradition, which congregates knowledge, memories, values, and symbols generally configured in linguistic objects of non-literary or aesthetic-literary nature, objects with or without consignment in written testimonies, accomplished vocally and recognizable collectively and during consecutive generations in an anatomy built by the laws of traditionality (anonymity, persistence, variation), I position myself specifically in the field of the brief or minimal poetry, lyric (mainly poems of four, five, or six verses) but also narrative-dramatic (traditional narrative songs). New directions In the present day, studies on oral tradition cannot afford to overlook the mutations typical of textual typologies, in the co-textual dimension—as in the contexts, the complex of cultural activities from which explicitly or implicitly the texts proceed and with which they interact. As important as the prolation of the text of oral literature through the voice, here and now, without any other channel and vehicle except the natural ones, today we must pay close attention to the transmission/re-creation of the constituent signs of that text materialized in substances and peculiar forms, that is, graphic, visual or audiovisual and resounding, typographic and electronic, digital and analogical forms. The process of mediatization gives density; it democratizes and eternalizes the oral literary word, which, instead of being fossilized by the action of that apparent crystallization, establishes more and more subtle relationships with a public far more massive than the popular audience. And, if we remember that the tradition is a living, dynamic, and malleable organism, then it won’t seem problematic to admit the original system of old traditional elements with other more modern features (for example, traditional music or fado with dance music). The result is the [End Page 164] appearance of products with artistic and pragmatic dimensions and with a memorial presence larger than that of its more ancient congeners. Carlos Nogueira Universidade de Lisboa Carlos Nogueira Carlos Nogueira holds an M.A. in Portuguese and Brazilian Studies from the University of Porto, where he is currently working on his Ph.D. in Portuguese literature and studying satire in Portuguese poetry. His publications include the Popular Song-Book of Baião (2 vols., 19962 vols., 2002) and the Narrative Song-Book of Baião (2003). References Finnegan 1992. Finnegan 1992 Ruth Finnegan. Oral Poetry: Its Nature, Significance and Social Context. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Orig. publ. 1977. Google Scholar Ong 1995. Ong 1995 Walter J. Ong. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the World. London: Routledge. Google Scholar Zumthor 1979. Zumthor 1979 Paul Zumthor. “Pour une poétique de la voix.” Poétique, 40:514–24. Google Scholar Zumthor 1982. Zumthor 1982 ———. “Le discours de la poésie orale.” Poétique, 52:387–401. Google Scholar Zumthor 1983. Zumthor 1983 ———. Introduction à la poésie orale. Paris: Edition du Seuil. Zumthor 1987. Zumthor 1987 ———. La Lettre et la voix. Paris: Edition du Seuil. Google Scholar Copyright © 2003 its author