Problems of Oral and Semiliterary Epics

Zusammenfassung

The study of oral poetry presumes an acquaintance with its social environment and practical functions. In the case of Western literature we may, as readers, regard ourselves as the natural recipients of poetic messages and may expect our own aesthetic principles to apply in the reception of a literary work. By contrast, as we enter cultures dominated by orality in the transmission of creative works, we must be prepared to postpone our aesthetic judgment. Instead of trying to grasp immediately the meaning of a piece of oral poetry, we must look at the way it is performed, its ‘reading’ in its cultural context, the primary producers of the piece of poetry in question and the primary readers of its message. We must first experience an anthropological translocation by setting aside, as far as possible, our highly automatized preconceptions, norms, attitudes and values, and try to enter the realm of the ‘other’. We must be prepared to question even basic truths of our own reality and experience and invite the continuous learning of new categories, forms of expression and processes of meaning. To be able to interact with the ‘other’, we must be empty and alert, humble and inquisitive, silent and attentive.