ENG215H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Telling Stories, Free Verse, Centrality
Document Summary
Tracing roots of the short story back to oral narratives, part to the history. A culture"s mythic stories, the oldest form, orality (bread speaking to an implied listener) History of ss is different in national literature, both literary and not literary. Oral narrative story explains an origin, how an owl became an owl. Robinson is one of the last storytellers of his people, telling and retelling in two languages. Some lady started to record his stories survival of the oral tradition. Oral to written publication (translation) distorts the style of the oral narrative, nuances of speech are lost. Oral nature and structure to show rhythm (line breaks) looks like free verse poetry as apposed to narrative. Deliberately done to capture the oral quality of the story"s rhythmic pattern and pauses (breaths) of robinson"s delivery. Beginning owl is large and intimidating, repetition to highlight important details to emphasize how big his is. Fluid, amorphous, not static or fixed, crosses boundaries.
