[Usyd_Classics_Events] USYD CAH Online Research Seminar this week!

[Ben Brown]

Dear Friends,

A quick reminder that this Thursday, October 14th at 4pm (AEDT UTC/GMT +11) a research seminar paper will be presented by

Prof. Em. Elizabeth Minchin (ANU), Ritchie Memorial Lecturer 2021

“Re-thinking composition in performance: evidence for poetic preparation in Homer”

https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/81612044057?from=addon

Meeting ID:     816 1204 4057

Abstract
The concept of composition in performance has in recent years generated investigation into the mind-based resources on which an oral traditional poet draws as he performs. But what has been obscured as we focus on that moment of performance is what precedes it: that is, the extent to which a poet might prepare, in advance, for any performance. As cultural anthropologist Karin Barber has proposed, what happens in performance is not pure instantaneity; performances within oral traditions entail what she refers to as a ‘textual dimension’. Drawing on her study of African praise poetry, Barber argues that oral performances can be viewed as performances of ‘texts’; and she uses the term ‘entextualization’ to describe that activity of consolidating ‘fleeting speech’ into the text-like chunks that she has observed in that African genre. These chunks may have ‘pre-existed the moment of utterance’, or they may be created in the moment and ‘constituted in utterance’. In this paper I argue that forward planning and rehearsal were essential to a successful oral performance of the Homeric kind. I propose that we may find in the epics passages that may indeed have been ‘constituted in utterance’ but that there is good evidence too for passages that clearly ‘pre-existed the moment of utterance’, to use Barber’s phrase, which were the product of composition and rehearsal--repeated retrieval--in tandem.

We welcome all and look forward to seeing you there,
All best, Ben


DR BEN BROWN
Classics and Ancient History
School Undergraduate Curriculum Coordinator (SOPHI)
Research Seminar Coordinator (CAH)
School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry (SOPHI)
THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY NSW 2006
Ph.: 9351 8983; Office: Main Quad J6.07
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