Orality : The Power of the Spoken Word

Oral communication is quite different in its spontaneity and communicative power from textual and visual communication. Culturally-bounded expectations of ways of speaking and individual creativity provide the spark that can ignite revolution or calm the soul. This book explores, from a cross-cultural perspective, the centrality of orality in the ideological processes that dominate public discourse, providing a counterbalance to the debates that foreground literacy and the power of written communication. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 List of Photographs and Figures......Page 10 Acknowledgements......Page 11 Preface......Page 12 Introduction: The Power of the Spoken Word......Page 14 Chief Standing Bear and a writ of habeas corpus......Page 17 Orality as a nervous condition......Page 25 Oral communication as model and ideal......Page 26 On the concern with literacy......Page 28 Power and the spoken word......Page 30 Making the most of the moment......Page 32 The anxiety of the moment: Marshal Mathers......Page 36 Intentionality – the speaker or the text?......Page 38 Making known – the private to the public......Page 40 Mapping intention and effect in the oral communicative moment: Sir Geoffrey Howe in action......Page 42 Concluding remarks......Page 55 Attitudes to culture and to language......Page 56 Genres......Page 59 Genre and ways of speaking: the expectations of speaker and listener......Page 61 Disputing the terms of verbal trade: the case of the northern Transvaal between the 1920s and 1950s......Page 67 Notions of appropriate language: praising......Page 70 Fixed and changing roles......Page 71 Ambiguity versus clarity......Page 72 Maintaining and disrupting the relation between form and content......Page 74 Critical discourse about speaking and the aesthetics of speech......Page 77 The aesthetics of speaking: two contrasting cultures......Page 78 Concluding remarks......Page 83 Social domains of cultural production: the performance and the audience......Page 85 The constituting of public culture......Page 89 Audiences and publics......Page 97 Audience cultures......Page 100 Concluding remarks......Page 103 What ideology?......Page 105 Truth and values......Page 108 Ideology in process: typification and evaluation......Page 113 Evaluative/ethical discourses......Page 115 Evaluative language......Page 123 Alternative discourses: the advertiser's armoury......Page 125 From ideological process to ideology......Page 130 Stereotypes and the kaleidoscope of human speech and action......Page 131 Hubert Humphrey and the 1948 Democratic National Convention......Page 137 Concluding remarks......Page 143 Orality versus literacy: the Great Divide debate......Page 144 Poetics......Page 154 Rhetoric......Page 157 Pragmatics......Page 162 The ethnography of speaking......Page 166 Performance and political language......Page 171 Concluding remarks......Page 174 6 Concluding: On the Centrality of the Evanescent......Page 177 Appendix A Sir Geoffrey Howe's Resignation Statement to the House of Commons, 13 November 1990......Page 184 Appendix B Speech by Hubert H. Humphrey to the Democratic National Convention, July 14, 1948......Page 190 References......Page 193 C......Page 196 H......Page 197 M......Page 198 P......Page 199 T......Page 200 Z......Page 201 What Is It About The Magic Of The Moment, Being Present When The World Turned, That Is So Important An Element In Individual And Social Behaviour? The Oral Communicative Moment Brings Together Ways Of Speaking And Pre-existing Relations Between Speaker And Audience In Such A Way That Success Or Failure Can Seal Fates Or Unpick Impending Disaster. Graham Furniss Examines The Nature Of Such Moments, Whether Memorable Public Occasions Or Moments In The Daily Flow Of Human Interaction, And Situates Them In The Culturally Defined Expectations That Determine What Are, And What Are Not, Appropriate Genres Of Speech For Particular Kinds Of Event. He Argues For Examining The Characteristics Of Orality In The Context Of Contemporary Social, Political And Economic Processes As People Discuss, Decide, Change Tack, And Become Aware Of The Broader Consensus Beyond Their Own Personal Experience.--book Jacket. Introduction : The Power Of The Spoken Word -- 1. The Oral Communicative Moment -- 2. Cultural Parameters Of Speech : Genre, Form, Aesthetics -- 3. Insertion Into The Social -- Constituting Audiences, Audience Cultures And Moving From The Private To The Public -- 4. Ideology And Orality -- 5. Academic Approaches To Orality -- 6. Concluding : On The Centrality Of The Evanescent -- App. A. Sir Geoffrey Howe's Resignation Statement To The House Of Commons, 13 November 1990 -- App. B. Speech By Hubert H. Humphrey To The Democratic National Convention, July 14, 1948. Graham Furniss. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 180-182) And Index.