As always, find the linked pdf's over on the WebCT site, but please do "Comment" over here.
Reading Packet: Glassie, "Hugh Nolan: I'll Tell You the Way It Was." | · This is a short summary of the role of the "mummer's plays" (seasonal folk plays, staged in people's rural kitchens in the shortest days of the winter, with a cast of historical characters including St Patrick, St George, Oliver Cromwell, and various mythological characters as well). Read the description, see what Hugh Nolan and Glassie both have to say about the meaning and social function of the mummer's play, and then read the play's text, linked on WebCT at "Course Menu - Mummer's Play." Try reading the poetic lines aloud and see if you can figure out the appropriate timing to make the lines really swing. | |
| 2.1.01 | Readings Packet: Short poems in the Hoagland-edited excerpts | · Two of these are pre-Christian pagan poems: both “Amergin” and “From the Triads of Ireland” exemplify Irish approaches to imagery, nature references, poetic structure, and the art of the memory; the balance are early-Christian poems. What are these approaches: to imagery, nature, structure, and the memory? How would you specifically describe Irish approaches in these poems? The Christian poems are from the same period (and some of the same people) of the peregrini: the Christian monks, clerics, and scholars who went back to Europe after the Fall of Rome, founded monasteries, libraries, and universities, and preserved the link with ancient Greek and early Christian learning. These are also the same people who created the music on the Altramar Celtic Wanderers CD (which we’ll listen to).
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| Readings Packet: Glassie “Introduction: At the End of a Short Winter’s Day” | · In the “Introduction,” Glassie links history and folklore, giving a narrative of both the formal collection and study of folk-tales, and through this narrative some ideas about how history and folklore might intersect and combine. What does Glassie believe are the strengths and limitations of each of these fields? What does he see as the strength of the approach of “folk” historians like Hugh Nolan? What does Hugh Nolan or Michael Boyle bring to the study and the narrative of history that Glassie sees as lacking in the more academic works? · In the “Preface,” Glassie both summarizes a period of Irish history (roughly from St Patrick to the 19th century), with a specific focus on the ways in which the Irish have told themselves their own histories. Why do you think Glassie put this information here, along with his Acknowledgements to those who helped him put the book together? Do you think he perceives a link between the acknowledgement of those who through history preserved the folklore, and those who helped him with this book? Further to a question we’ve asked earlier: what is the historian’s responsibility to his/her own community? |
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5 comments:
I'll tell you the way it Was:
Mummer's Plays were used as a means of social interaction in the Winter during a time in which Ireland was quite poor as a country. Hugh Nolan stated that nobody had a car and only few people had bikes (p17). It seems to me that the mummer's plays evolved to fit a need within the community. People need human interaction! In a situation that lacks material resources ways of creating community can be quite inventive. Mr. Nolan also mentioned that mummer's plays haven't happened much in the last 30 years because the young folks have jobs away from their hometowns and own cars. This means that they can travel easier to different places for social interaction. They are no longer obliged to maintain the tradition of mummer's plays. At the end of the discussion, it is agreed that young people don't have much sense of community anymore. (p18) I would submit that a sense of community can have many different looks. Just because mummer's play aren't continued does not necessarily mean that a sense of community has been lost. That's my opinion but I may not have all of the facts.
I agree with you accept on the loss of community. It is a part of not only interaction but also of a remembering of the roots to which the community is attached. Not to say that a mummers play must continue to take place in order to have this connection but it is certainly somthing that becomes weaker.
Intro - End of a short Winter's Day
I liked the way Glassie explained how the art medium (oral history versus written history) can change the relationship between audience member (or reader) and storyteller (or writer). I think he is right on.
My vision of the Mummer's Plays conjures up a similiar image of children when they play dress up, play pretend, or put on imaginary plays with their friends or their families. However, less and less children play in this style today. The emphasis seems more focused toward the technology world. In that sense I would have to agree we have lost some of the community aspect of interacting with each other.
I like your analogy Julie. In that sense I would agree with you.
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