ENG215H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Ben Okri, Owl Woman, Shapeshifting
Document Summary
Provided truth and anecdote, narrative of their times and peoples. Storytelling and stories are part of harry robinson. Grew up in the south side of b. c. Considered as a walking piece of literature of his people. Learned the importance of the story telling tradition to his people. Became skilled in telling stories in his native language (okanagan) and english. Recorded robinson"s stories, that answered his fear of losing his stories and the oral tradition to the technological age. Nuances of language can be lost in translation. Wigwire commented on the performance aspect of robinson"s storytelling. Robinson told wigwire his stories in english and also told her the oral structure of the stories themselves. Her transcriptions are intended to retain the oral structure of the performance. Hope is that the story telling feels more like speech through writing. Despite its written record of this specific story, oral stories are protean, that is the capacity to change frequently and/or easily.
