Understanding Composite Text Structure: A Problem in the Comparative Study of Oral-Traditional Literature

Abstract

The present dissertation investigates a structural feature found in texts from oral environments. The feature in question involves a particular type of juxtaposition among constituent segments or units within a text (e.g., episodes in a narrative). I refer to it as “composite text structure,” and I define it in detail at the beginning of the study. The dissertation focuses on an oral narrative in Kwak’wala—the language traditionally spoken by Kwakwaka’wakw communities of coastal British Columbia—that was committed to writing in 1930. The specific aim of the analysis is to identify hermeneutic responses which the composite structure of this text demanded of the story’s intended audiences. I argue, in particular, that the structure of the narrative was designed to convey culture-specific ideas regarding personal names, name-changes, and associated rituals.

The broader goal of the dissertation is to establish a starting-point for comparative research on composite text structure as a cross-cultural phenomenon. Apart from the study’s primary philological focus on Kwak’wala oral literature and on other indigenous oral traditions of the Pacific Northwest, the opening chapter includes an analysis of a relevant text from the late antique rabbinic corpus. Likewise, the dissertation concludes by proposing directions for comparative work on early rabbinic and other oral-traditional literatures.