Textualising the Siri EpicHow does an illiterate singer produce a long oral epic? What is the origin of his "text", available only for a fleeting moment at its performance? How can a multifaceted oral performance be transformed into a book? The primary oral textualization and the secondary written codification of the Siri epic, 15,683 lines, are described in detail in the present volume on the basis of recent fieldwork among the speakers of Tulu, a Dravidian language, in southern Karnataka, India. The "oral author", Mr Gopala Naika, is one of the many talented singers of oral epics in Tulunaadu and a possession priest in rituals which use oral epics as their mythical charter and a source of mental therapy. |
Contents
PREFACE | 7 |
MAP | 10 |
A THE ENIGMA OF LONG EPIC 1 Two traditions one passion | 11 |
Copyright | |
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able Ajjeru asks assistant audience become began beginning body Brahmin buuta called changes chapter child collected comes composition context continue created culture deleted detail dictated discourse discussion divine documentation elements episode event example expressions fact festival field flower folklore genre give gods Gopala Naika hand human important individual interesting Kalevala Kumara language later learning leave lines material meaning mental mode mother multiforms Naraayina narrative nature offered oral epics original paatri particular pause performance person poetic possession possible present priest problem question recitation refers represents ritual scholars seems Segment short side singer singing Siri epic situation song SonnÉ› standing story structure style sung telling temple term textual tion took tradition translation Tulu units variation voice women