4 - Memory in Oral Tradition

Summary

Oral and literature cultures

In approaching this topic, I decided to start by discussing memory in oral cultures, which is what I call those without writing. Unlike many other scholars, I use the phrase ‘oral tradition’ to refer to what is transmitted orally in literate cultures. The two forms of oral transmission in societies with and without writing are often conflated, and that has been the case in the well-known work of Parry and Lord on the ‘orality’ of Homer. Most epics are products of literate cultures even if they are performed orally.

Oral performance in literate societies is undoubtedly influenced to different degrees by the presence of writing and should not be identified with the products of purely oral cultures. The point is not merely academic for it affects our understanding of much early literature and literary techniques, which are seen by many as marked by the so-called oral style. To push the point to a speculative level, speculative since I do not know a sufficient number of unwritten languages (and here translations are of no help whatsoever), many of the techniques we think of as oral seem to be rare in cultures without writing. Examples include assonance (as in Beowulf or the work of Gerard Manley Hopkins), mnemonic structure (as in the Sanskritic Rig-Veda), formulaic composition and even the very pervasive use of rhyme.