Ong Chapter 6

Oral Memory, The Story Line and Characterization

Primacy of the StoryLine
looking at print effect on narrative
narrative exists in time like human life
story lines are embedded in flow of time

narrative and oral cultures
oral tradition is based on narratives
print makes narrative retrievable
oral=narrative is lost after spoken

Oral Memory and the Story Line
big difference in literate v. oral narrative is memory functioning
oral plot not 'Freytag's pyramid'-linear plot/tying and untying of a knot
Greek plot describes event, much later explains how it came to be
oral plot is boxes within boxes (thematic reoccurances)v. pyramid
Thus John Milton explains in the ‘Argument’ to Book I of
Paradise Lost that, after proposing ‘in brief the whole subject’ of
the poem and touching upon ‘the prime cause’ of Adam’s fall ‘the
Poem hasts into the midst of things.’
oral-gets right to the action
literate-describes beginning,middle,end
drama-literate, epic-oral
plot is a life minus all unimportant details
oral plot-episodic structure
oral performance is rememberance of songs sung, not personal ideas
THe bard shows his personality by way he recites v. storyline\
Sappho wrote poems temporally

Closure of Plot: Travelogue to Detective Story
Novel made the definitive break from episodic structure
Detective stories were a break from episodic structure
Action builds ,reveal, then all details were relevant
oral protagonist=physical action
print protagonist=interior consciousness
‘The letter kills; the spirit gives life’ (2 Corinthians 3:6)
Avantgarde literature deplots or obscures plot-too easy

The Round Character, writing and print
Oral=flat, heavy/iconic characters
Novel perfected round character
round character not possible without analysis/introspection writing brings about
writing brought interiorization of the world
Print brings personal relationship with religious texts/^introspection
flat characters exist in simpler stories/advertising/westerns
Jolly Green Giant=Fertility God LOL!
Round character marks consciousness change
Depth psychology produces more cokmplicated characters
This depth of analysis not possible without written word