Oral tradition

Summary

Dominique Pagani approaches oral tradition mainly through the African griot: at once musician, poet, historian and genealogist, the griot keeps the oral memory of genealogies and stands "above kings"1. He likens the griot to Homer's rhapsodes and to the bards: poetry was oral for millennia before it was written. Opening the cycle on Nerval, he draws from this his "griot's method": to hand on what one has received up to the limit of one's memory, like the griot who stops at the millipede with too many legs. He also points to this limit: an oral culture reaches back only a few generations. For him, history begins with writing, which gives certainties rather than truth. He contrasts speech, which flows like water, with the stone of the menhirs, which defies time2. In music, he links oral transmission to the vocal polyphonies of the Pygmies and to African functional music, tied to collective labour1.

1. 1The music of history26 Apr 2015
2. 2Between sea and mountain, the standing stones of Valinco (the Corsican Neolithic)24 Nov 2020

Introduction produced automatically from the 3 sessions on this theme, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the sessions.