Anthropology 1020E Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Nationstates, Hut Tax, Imagined Communities
10 Aug 2016
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Document Summary
Kramsch feels like writing is secondary to speech. Writing is a derivative of speech: it is secondary to speech. Speech and writing differ in significant ways: speech is dialogic and depends on co-presence of speaker and audience. Conversations are characterized by overlapping speech, pauses as speaker and listener take turns and improvise in response to each other. Communications theorists refer to this as synchronous communication. Communication between speakers and listeners in real-time: exceptional contexts. Speech-making, sermons, lectures, dramatic performances, poetry readings and sometimes prayers. Transient and context dependent: takes places in the here and now and then it is gone. Elements of speech that serve to underscore of reinforce speaker-listener relation. Redundant or copious: repetition, lots of restatement. Loosely structured: meanders, backtracks, goes off on tangents and (sometimes) returns. Communication tends to be non-transient and context-independent: emphasis on communication of information apart from immediate context. Relation between author and audience: communication does not depend on co-presence.
