>Hiya
>I have a huge problem with saying speech comes first and then comes writing.
>Does this mean that writing only came to Australia with the English invasion?
>That the people that were always here in this land did not have writing
>before the invasion? That people who are so called illiterate cannot write?
>
>Where does writing begin and reading end? Where does speech end and writing
>begin? Why is speech given a primacy from which is developed writing? The
>idea that speech comes first and is distinct from writing is an imperialist
>idea and buys into the very structures of racism in the history of Western
>thought and theories of language. In this way writing is said to be more
>valuable then speech, even if an attempt is made to reverse the values, since
>such an attempt actually admits that writing is more important then speech in
>this way of thinking. So people who are claimed to be illiterate are said to
>be lacking something, are lesser people, even if the claim is made that they
>can participate by using speech in laguage. This is still a discriminatory
>judgement, even if such a judgement is not intended as such. I have taught
>creative writing to so-called illiterate people... the very term illiterate
>is a misnomer laden with discriminatory judgements, I find.
>
>Sorry, but I had to disagree... hope you don't mind this style of
>intervention which is not meant as nasty, but a contribution to a politcal
>debate on language.
>
>best wishes
>
>Chris Jones.
It depends what we mean by 'writing' Chris, as Derrida has been saying for
some time now (& as you know, I assume). Certainly we continually encounter
encounter the inscriptions of culture from the very beginning.
And, I have to agree with LIz: if not a reader, then not a writer (however
we define 'reading,' although in our culture, it has to include actually
reading the poetry of the past (near & far), coming to know the conventions
& how they work & how you can push them, etc...
Douglas Barbour
Department of English
University of Alberta
Edmonton Alberta Canada T6G 2E5
(h) [780] 436 3320 (b) [780] 492 0521
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm
I don't think writers are sacred, but words are.
They deserve respect. If you get the right ones
in the right order, you can nudge the world a
little...
--Tom Stoppard (The Real Thing)
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