This moves us into the Readings Packet as well as continuing our reading in Carson, Glassie,and O hAllmhurain. Again, read as much as you can, don't stress about reading everything, but operate from the assumption that everything you are able to read can enrich and deepen your experience in class.
RP: Foy “Glossary” Read the terms for familiarization purposes, but also ask yourself: why would Foy use some descriptions that are obviously sarcastic? What does this reveal about the Irish traditional sense of humor?
RP: Glassie “At the End of a Short Winter’s Day” A survey of approaches and editions of folklore; how does Glassie link the traditional storyteller’s art to that of academic folklorists or collectors?
Glassie: Ch. 4 “The Next Day” In this chapter Glassie introduces Ballymenone’s “great historian” Hugh Nolan and speaks at length about local concepts of “history”; how do those concepts or definition differ from those we might expect in the academic setting? This would include questions like: Who carries history? What is history’s function? How does history serve community? What sorts of events are valid topics for history? What is the historian’s responsibility to the history s/he conveys? What is the historian’s responsibility to the community?
Also in this chapter, we get extended examples of Glassie’s method for transcribing (e.g., capturing on the page) “oral history”—that is, history which is conveyed in speech and conversation. What specific orthographic (e.g., structure, grammar, and writing style) choices does Glassie make in these transcriptions? And why do you think he makes them? What are the advantages to the rather peculiar orthography which Glassie employs?
Carson: “Ask My Father” and “Pigtown” “AMF” is essentially about language: about dialog, and about the dialogs that the particularly evocative titles of instrumental tunes can create. He includes extensive quotations from several other authors in this chapter: in fact, as many words in the chapter are written by others as are written by Carson himself. Does this somehow relate to the theme of this chapter? What is the relationship between words that are borrowed from other authors and tunes that are learned by ear from other musicians? How might this concept of “ownership and sharing” relate to or differ from more formal or individual-oriented concepts of ownership?
“PT” is essentially Carson’s transcription of a joke in the “shaggy-dog story” format. Why would Carson make a whole chapter out of it? Is he perhaps saying something about Irish concepts of time versus “hurry”? Does this shaggy-dog story tell us about other aspects of Irish aesthetics? Who comes out on top in the story: the sophisticated “returned Yank” or the Irish pig farmer? Does this story remind you of some of the “bids” and “pants” which Glassie describes? If so, how?
1 comment:
One of the most interesting points of story telling is how off-putting direct questioning about facts seems to be. There is a real cultural pattern to the interplay between story teller and listener. In addition, the most important quality to history in Ballymenone is the entertainment quality of the history. Glassie writes that books may be fine to record the non-memorable facts but stories of history that are memorized and retold must be entertaining. With this focus, it seems to matter little the degree of accuracy or record of names which contradicts traditional academic practice in study of history.
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