Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Rhythm Is a Dancer: Haun Saussy’s Epistemological History of Oral Tradition

Rhythm Is a Dancer: Haun Saussy’s Epistemological History of Oral Tradition REVIEW ESSAY STEFANOS GEROULANOS Rhythm Is a Dancer: Haun Saussy’s Epistemological History of Oral Tradition Haun Saussy. The Ethnography of Rhythm. New York: Fordham University Press, 2016. Oral literature follows rules that differ from those observed by written litera- ture; it enjoys different privileges, because in it people normally aim for rhythm and composition. Poetry meant for reading is less perfect than poetry composed for recitation. —Marcel Mauss, Manual of Ethnography 90 I. Perturbations upon Perturbations In 1946, the French ethnologist Marcel Griaule met an old blind hunter among the Dogon in Mali, whom he subsequently treated as the principal expositor of Dogon culture. Central to Griaule’s ethnographic modus operandi was a herme- neutics of suspicion fueled by more than a pinch of racism. In 1939, he had written to Paul Valéry complaining that the Dogon were toying with him when they told of their oral tradition: “Well, my negro friends! You thought you’d had me with your myth of the turtle! But . . .” (Fonds Paul Valéry). By the time he met Ogotemmelli the hunter, Griaule was allegorizing the anthropological encounter as a strategic operation, an “inquest” starring an ethnographer as the “examining magistrate” dealing with an http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Comparative Literature Duke University Press

Rhythm Is a Dancer: Haun Saussy’s Epistemological History of Oral Tradition

Comparative Literature , Volume 70 (2) – Jun 1, 2018

Loading next page...
 
/lp/duke-university-press/rhythm-is-a-dancer-haun-saussy-s-epistemological-history-of-oral-vow4Leoz9y

References (7)

Copyright
Copyright © 2018 by University of Oregon
ISSN
0010-4124
eISSN
1945-8517
DOI
10.1215/00104124-6817429
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

REVIEW ESSAY STEFANOS GEROULANOS Rhythm Is a Dancer: Haun Saussy’s Epistemological History of Oral Tradition Haun Saussy. The Ethnography of Rhythm. New York: Fordham University Press, 2016. Oral literature follows rules that differ from those observed by written litera- ture; it enjoys different privileges, because in it people normally aim for rhythm and composition. Poetry meant for reading is less perfect than poetry composed for recitation. —Marcel Mauss, Manual of Ethnography 90 I. Perturbations upon Perturbations In 1946, the French ethnologist Marcel Griaule met an old blind hunter among the Dogon in Mali, whom he subsequently treated as the principal expositor of Dogon culture. Central to Griaule’s ethnographic modus operandi was a herme- neutics of suspicion fueled by more than a pinch of racism. In 1939, he had written to Paul Valéry complaining that the Dogon were toying with him when they told of their oral tradition: “Well, my negro friends! You thought you’d had me with your myth of the turtle! But . . .” (Fonds Paul Valéry). By the time he met Ogotemmelli the hunter, Griaule was allegorizing the anthropological encounter as a strategic operation, an “inquest” starring an ethnographer as the “examining magistrate” dealing with an

Journal

Comparative LiteratureDuke University Press

Published: Jun 1, 2018

There are no references for this article.