> This is posted on behalf of Robert Gleave of the University of Bristol,
> who is a lecturer of Islamic Studies and is working on an 18th-century
> hagiographical text. He writes:
>
> "Can anyone recommend some reading on the move from oral hagiography to
> written hagiography? Specifically I am looking for examples of
> hagiographers who use predominantly oral sources even though there were
> loads of written sources available, i.e., someone who chooses not to use
> written sources because he favours orality. 'Is the material found in such
> an oral tradition different from that found in the written tradition' is
> the question I want to pose. Any period but the later the better. Thanks."
>
> c.a.muessig@bristol
I'm not sure how to advise about making practical use of the following
information, but for what it is worth, we just today finished the annual
year ending colloquium of the Center for Judaic Studies at the
University of Pennsylvania on the theme
Learning and Literacy in the Judaic Tradition: A Comparative and
Interdisciplinary Inquiry.
A major portion of the program concerned "The Social and Literary
Context of Oral and Written Transmission," including papers on "Orality
and the Institutionalization of Tradition: The Growth of the Gaonic
Yeshiva and the Islamic Madrasa" (by Yaakov Elman of Yeshiva Univ. and
Daphna Ephrat of the Hebrew Univ.).
I expect that a book with the papers and discussions will be produced,
and many of the participants are accessible by e-mail, but beyond that,
the best I can offer is a full copy of the program (electronically) to
interested parties (or to the entire list, if desirable). It was a very
stimulating conference which managed to raise more questions than it was
able to answer -- a healthy situation, to my way of thinking.
Bob Kraft, UPenn and CJS
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|