Date: Fri, 16 Sep 1994 14:52:27 -0400 (EDT)
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim-AT-panix.com>
To: foucault-AT-world.std.com
Cc: foucault-AT-world.std.com
Subject: Re: Oral Culture



What I would be interested in, personally, would be more direct 
experiential accounts of the uses of orality. Derrida, like Jabes (which 
otherwise might also be a good source), comes from a highly literate 
culture; there are so many mediations at work here. I was thinking about 
the _approach_ to theory from a non-writing perspective - the nearest I 
can bring to bear here is Jean Duvignaud's Change at Shebika, still quite 
worth-while, detailing the phenomenology of a 
sociological/anthropological approach to a Tunisian village.

Alan

On Fri, 16 Sep 1994, Walt Stein wrote:

> In Article <Pine.SUN.3.90.940915002830.17556C-100000-AT-u.cc.utah.edu>
> steven.meinking-AT-m.cc.utah.edu writes:
> 
> >  
> > Alan Sondheim inquired:
> >  
> > "I would be interested to know, if you can describe it, how an oral 
> > culture plays out into theory, or does it?  For books can also be 
> > problematic loci of power."  
> >  
> While not exactly relevant to your question, might I suggest that
> Derrida's section on "the writing lesson" in Of Grammatology might help to
> spark ways of looking at this question.  I've read and enjoyed Ong,
> Orality and Literacy, but I found Derrida very helpful on this issue.
> 
>