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 dicuss, decide, change tack, and become aware of the broader consensus beyond their own personal experience.
'a thought-provoking view on the centrality of orality from a cross-cultural perspective.' - Luna Beard, Linguist List
Introduction
The Oral Communicative Moment
Cultural Parameters of Speech: Genre, Form, Aesthetics
Insertion into the Social: Constituting Audiences, Audience Cultures and Moving from the Private to the Public
Ideology and Orality
Academic Approaches to Orality
Concluding: On the Centrality of the Evanescent
Appendix A: Sir Geoffrey Howe's Resignation Speech, 1990
Appendix B: Hubert Humphrey's Speech to the 1948 Democratic National Convention
References
Index
GRAHAM FURNISS is Professor of African Language Literature at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK. He is the author of Poetry, Prose and Popular Culture in Hausa and Co-Editor of African Broadcast Cultures; Power, Marginality and African Oral Literature; and African Languages, Development and the State.
Description
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 dicuss, decide, change tack, and become aware of the broader consensus beyond their own personal experience.
Reviews
'a thought-provoking view on the centrality of orality from a cross-cultural perspective.' - Luna Beard, Linguist List
Contents
Introduction
The Oral Communicative Moment
Cultural Parameters of Speech: Genre, Form, Aesthetics
Insertion into the Social: Constituting Audiences, Audience Cultures and Moving from the Private to the Public
Ideology and Orality
Academic Approaches to Orality
Concluding: On the Centrality of the Evanescent
Appendix A: Sir Geoffrey Howe's Resignation Speech, 1990
Appendix B: Hubert Humphrey's Speech to the 1948 Democratic National Convention
References
Index
Authors
GRAHAM FURNISS is Professor of African Language Literature at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK. He is the author of Poetry, Prose and Popular Culture in Hausa and Co-Editor of African Broadcast Cultures; Power, Marginality and African Oral Literature; and African Languages, Development and the State.
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