Orality in my Life as a Translator and Caribbean Academic
I have been particularly excited that orality and performance has made it to the classroom of Biblical Studies. Coming from a Dutch academic background myself, while being a Caribbean person, I have found two sides of me at war for as long as I can remember. Orality as part of my creole identity and writing as part of my academic identity.
When I was studying philosophy, in one class I presented a paper and decided to do a mix with performance during the presentation. The professor commented that that kind of folkloric stuff is "leuk" (nice) but not that appropriate in an academic setting. Performance Criticism is doing a good job in focussing attention on Performance from different perspectives.
On the the other hand, it is not so that one wants to abolish writing. There is actually a dialectical relationship between writing, even the knowledge of writing as a reality and orality in any community. We need to avoid extremes. Performance Criticism is a great toolbox to interpret, translate and proclaim Scripture, but it is not the only lens. It actually depends on other forms of approaches like , for example , the anthropological, the rhetorical and the literary for it to be effective.
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Thanks, Marlon, for speaking up for orality in Christian communication of God's message. I hope that many will recognize that the academic world is saturated with what I call the literate mindset. It is very difficult to step out of the those modes of thinking and think like an oral learner. However, our effectiveness in helping oral learners in new languages will be in direct proportion to the message being in their learning modes, not our modes of teaching, no matter fancy or well finance they might be. Let's continue talking. Willis
Recently, I began to listen to the translated Audio-New Testament (Igbo) and I found out that I could go through the entire Scripture in a very short time. Never mind, apostle Paul encourages a public reading of the Scripture, and for those who either by illiteracy or sight deficiency cannot read will find orality very indispensable! With the busyness in the world today, I envisage orality in Bible translation may be that last straw that will break the camels back both in our generation and next. Did I understand your point?