Part 1, Oral Traditions and Parables
Rosa Parks 1913-2005Please take some time to think about the effect one individual can have.
For those that completed the reading, thank you for your effort. For those that didn't, please pay closer attention to the details of the assignment and complete the reading for Thursday.
I hope you found class discussion today interesting. The Heath essay will serve as a great model as you start looking closer at your DCs. And remember what I mentioned in class--you are the expert here--how can you use your "insiderness" to explain the shared knowledge, purpose and ways? And what interesting perspectives do outsiders bring to how this DC works? David example, going into a club where he was the only Asian-American, highlighted the notion that being an outsider often puts you in a position to see a community in a way they don't see themselves.
(image source: http://members.aol.com/mibulletin/online.html)
In Oral Traditions, Heath herself, as an outsider, lived in Roadville and Trackton for 12 years, collecting data and observing. She observes: "In several ways, stories such as Sue's are similar to Biblical parables, a frequent source for sermons and Bible lessons, and a literary source familiar to all...Often parables end with a sumamry statement which is both a condemnation of one or mor of teh story's characters and a warning to those who would hear and understand the parable for its relevance to thier own lives" (Heath 214).
What does this passage suggest about the importance of what we read to the shared knowledge of a discourse community? What do the use of parables suggest about the values and beliefs of the Roadville community?
posted by cjpapasito at 4:03 PM
7 Comments:
I found this info on parables and thought I would pass it along.
What is a parable? A special teaching technique, parables have been called “earthly stories with heavenly meanings.” This common definition is not a bad overview of parables. More insight comes as we examine how the word was formed. Parable has as its main element the Greek verb ballo, meaning to throw or place, modified by the prepositional prefix para, meaning basically alongside or near. So a parable is literally a parallel situation, a story deliberately close to the main point but not identical with it.
The stories told by Roadville people are similar to Biblical parables. In parables there is usually two things,events compared,there is also a moral,lesson learnt at the end.Some stories are told repeatedly from generation to generation,but only the summary is needed since it is usually the base for a new story.All this tells us that those people are church goers.Stories of Roadville people usually carry messages about peoples' personal values and beiefs. Sue's story tells us that she doesnt throw anything out,makes things from scratch,her daughter probably is the same way.
The Oral Traditions passage suggest that what we read is important to the shared knowledge of a discourse commmunity because what we read, ends up opening doors for us to have something in common with others. For Sue,her stories can be related to biblical passages because she has a moral and a lesson to all of her statements. When we read something, and we share it with our discourse community it allows all of us to grow as a community because we're learning from eachother. The use of parables suggest that the values and beliefs of the Roadville community are very religious and highly based on knowledge and beliefs. The values which arise from this community are trust and honesty and when you have a moral to your story one can identify with that story more.
Parables told by Jesus recount daily experience common to the people of his
Days” saying us text on p214.And I want to emphasize the expression “of his days”
Meaning Jesus days, right?! And as we know, at Jesus days peoples knew only tow
Things- free bread and gladiators games, so God send his son to the earth to save
those people from ‘’ darkness of theirs existence”. And now , we talking about
community of our days,(emphasize our days) which using Bible as certain life guide. To me its seems
like, this group of people are not growing intellectually ,because theirs intellectual
activity (shared knowledges that they have) limiting by gossips and Bibles papables.
While reading "Oral Traditions" it made me think of Edger's "a Loaf of Bread". They seemed to have some slight similarities. They both included some reference to religion and "the code".In "A Loaf of Bread" Reed uses parables when speaking to his supporters about the unethical treatment they have recieved from Green. Also, on pg 212 when the author states " Mrs. Dee and her granddaughter Martha, reannounced Sue's story and subtly convey that Mrs.Macken stepped out of line by asking Sue to tell a story on this occasion" this paticular statement made me think of "the code". Mrs.Macken nor Sue's status was as high as Mrs.Dee's so she and her granddaughter didn't appreciate Mrs. Macken going against "the code" which they have established in that particular DC. Even though Mrs. Macken was the appointed person handling things for this paticular occassion, she still doesn't have seniority.
I have taken it upon myself to post what I found on Parables:
Parable, name given originally by Greek rhetoricians to a literary illustration. In the New Testament it signifies a short, fictitious narrative, designed to illuminate a spiritual truth; it has been used similarly by later writers to convey a moral point.
"Parable," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2005
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Definition of a parable: Someone has attempted to define a parable by saying, A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Certainly a parable is a story--a created story of something that might have happened. It is a story that has been told for the definite purpose of making some truth clear. Therefore, it is an illustration to throw light upon some doctrine. A parable is usually a short story which is allegorical in nature. An allegory is the description of one thing under the image of another.
http://www.lightandlamp.com/parables_part_one.htm
The passage suggests that the values of a DC can be learned through lessons encoded in parables. They are responsible for sharing knowledge relevant to the lives of the individuals of a DC and are passed on through generations socializing the young and reminding the old about behaviors expected.
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