Contemporary performance poetry is a democratic art form that elicits dialogue and is a catalyst for social change. Yet it is an art form that is still not well understood: it is accused of unconsciously mimicking hip-hop and being a watered-down, lesser version of "real" poetry. However once its power is harnessed it may be a powerful art form that can be used to address social ills and act as a medium for memory work. The themes that are prevalent in contemporary performance poetry illustrate society‘s preoccupations. Different South African and American poets from a wide range of socio-economic, national, generational and racial backgrounds are examined to explore the collective preoccupations that keep emerging in the poetry, issues pertaining to race and class, gender, and to the politics of the past and its effect on the present. There is a long debate around the influences of contemporary performance poetry, which is negotiated in Chapter One. Though Gil Scott-Heron‘s "The Revolution will not be Televised" is identified as being a major influence, Saul Williams‘s "Black Stacey" challenges some of the arguments made by Scott-Heron. Lesego Rampolokeng lays the foundation for South African performance poetry by criticising the new black elite in the country in "Riding the Victim Train". Chapter Two examines how the poets challenge the status quo in their work. Sarah Jones‘s "Blood" illustrates how the new black middle class in America is complicit in keeping poor people on the margins, while Kgafela oa Magogodi levels his criticism against state sanctioned poets in South Africa. Mxolisi Nyezwa‘s "The Man is Gone" illustrates that the new class based hierarchal system in South Africa is potentially harsher than the apartheid one that was based on race. Chapter Three focuses on gender issues that are prevalent in South Africa. Tumi Molekane‘s "Yvonne" illustrates the danger that is embedded in the hetero-normative narrative while oa Magogodi‘s "Samson and deli(e)lah" and Sam‘s "Eve" explore how this narrative is unjustly informed by misinterpretations of the Bible. History and the impact of the past on the present is the focus of Chapter Four. "76" by Molekane illustrates how the apartheid legacy still affects many in South Africa, while Andrea Gibson‘s "Eli" explores the devastating effects of America‘s war efforts in Iraq. Dennis Brutus highlights the cathartic attributes of poetry that is community-driven in "So Neat They Were" and "Mumia". The chapter ends with an exploration of how the form of izibongo is used by Chris Thurman in "Holy City (A Jozi Praise-Poem)". The last poem illustrates how the past informs the present and suggests that despite the bleakness of the past, there is hope for South Africa because of its rich cultural heritage.

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When a writer desires to express a feeling rather than merely a fact, a strict research method of writing is not always the most effective. If one is not bound by the historical facts of a situation, he may make his treatment dramatic and greatly help an audience experience his feelings by speaking in the first person or by atttibutlng his words to some other person. Because aesthetic and emotional communication is possible only through one of the major fine arts, the present writer decided to prepare a creative thesis entltled "Death Shall Die." It is hoped that through this thesis an illusion will be created, a human experience will be communicated. and - since truth is the aim of literature - a truth will be clarified. The chief difficulty encountered in this thesis was that problem common to all art - the problem of transmitting to an audience an experience with intensity and meaning. It has been agreed upon that the thesis itself shall consist of an original oral reading selection rather than the usual written thesis. The following few pages of explanation therefore, should not be considered the thesis, but are submitted as a supplement to the thesis. A copy of the oral reading follows the explanatory material. It is well to bear in mind. that the selection has been written to be heard rather than read; therefore, the appreciation of the work gained from reading it may not be the same thing as that gained from hearing it performed. While one may profit by reading this thesis, the nineteenth century French scholar, Paul Lorain, reminds us that if we read such a selection rather than hearing it, the work may be "like a dried flower: the substance, indeed, is there, but the color is faded and the perfume gone."

This study investigates the use of oral interpretation in social contexts. The context chosen was a community corrections program which provides education and employment assistance to adults on probation in Denton County, Texas. A solo interpretation script was incorporated into a public awareness presentation about the Denton County Probationer Education and Employment Program. The presentation was presented to a pilot audience to test the effectiveness of combining oral interpretation with public speaking to inform audiences about and elicit support for community corrections. It was determined that integrating an interpretative performance into an informational presentation is an effective method of employing oral interpretation outside the classroom and expanding its rhetorical dimensions.

This oral interpretation thesis analyzes the influences on Mark Twain's reading, traces his development as an oral interpreter, and studies his techniques for revising selections of his literature to make them more suitable for oral delivery. This study concentrates on Twain's 1884-1885 reading tour with George W. Cable because in that period Twain made his greatest advances as an oral interpreter. The impact that this tour had on Twain's later reading is also analyzed. It was discovered that the interpretation theories developed by Twain are consistent with contemporary theory and practice.

Initially, this work recognizes that college students often fail to understand or to appreciate the language of literature; therefore, a proposal has been developed that incorporates the typical methods and media of two academic areas--literature and oral interpretation--into a synchronized dual approach to the study of literature. Chapter I discusses contemporary problems of literacy in general; Chapter II explores the traditional teaching approaches of English and oral interpretation; and Chapter III develops a possible-literary communal effort by outlining a survey course in British Literature and presenting a series of exemplificative Writers Theatre scripts.Chapter IV reviews the associative problems that apparently exist between oral language and the written symbol and recommends that a companion project might demonstrate more fully the efficacy of an integrative approach to the teaching of writing.

The thrust of this study was twofold: to research and compile a script of English Medieval and Renaissance literature and to direct a group performance of the script in the oral interpretation mode at Scarborough Faire in Waxahachie, Texas. The study sought to show that a Readers Theatre script compiled of literature from the oral tradition of England was a suitable art form for a twentieth-century audience and that Readers Theatre benefited participants in the Scarborough Faire workshop program. This study concluded that the performed script appealed to a modern audience and that workshop training was enhanced by Readers Theatre in rehearsal and performance.

The focus of this thesis is on Xhosa oral and written poetry. The discussion in the thesis is based on the information from existing literature, the responses from the questionnaires and the interviews with some Xhosa iimbongi (person who sings praises) who have reflected on their personal experiences. In addition to this, S.E.K. Mqhayi is at the centre of discussion because as a prominent Xhosa imbongi he features in both the oral and the written world.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-12-11T11:13:04Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Juliana Andreassa da Lomba.pdf: 1738916 bytes, checksum: 9231dcde58d03414f095212838c58290 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-12-11T11:13:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Juliana Andreassa da Lomba.pdf: 1738916 bytes, checksum: 9231dcde58d03414f095212838c58290 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-11-29 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / This research endures the challenge of approaching the faces and interfaces of three styles of oral language. Its objectives are: to investigate the differences and similarities among the sung, spoken and recited styles as stylistic forms of oral language and social expression and to analyze their impressive effects, since the sung, spoken and recited styles have different expressive purposes. To reach the proposed objectives two types of analysis were combined: acoustic and perceptive. The acoustic analysis was used to verify the differences of production among the three styles, while the perceptive analysis, which implied on the application of a semantic differential questionnaire to a group of judges, was used to investigate the impressive impact of the mentioned styles sonorities. By the acoustic analysis it was possible to verify, through the fundamental frequency measures, intensity, duration and spectral decline, the prosodic characteristics of each one of the styles. By the perceptive analysis, the presented results show how each style reaches the listeners in a different way, since the evaluation of the selected descriptors to evaluate them was differential, which evinced different impressive effects. The acoustic and perceptive analysis results were correlated by using statistics tests of multidimensional analysis. The sung, spoken and recited styles prosodies present different aspects, as was shown by the generated values in the script ExpressionEvaluator (BARBOSA, 2009). Therefore, we conclude that the sung, spoken and recited styles cause different impressive effects that activate the organism in different ways and they have the communication as a social role / Esta pesquisa enfrenta o desafio de abordar as faces e as interfaces de três formas de linguagem oral. São seus objetivos: investigar as diferenças e similaridades entre as palavras cantada, falada e declamada como estilos estilísticas de linguagem e de expressão social e analisar seus efeitos impressivos, uma vez que as palavras falada, cantada e declamada têm finalidades expressivas diversas. Para atingir os objetivos propostos foram conjugados dois tipos de análises: acústica e perceptiva. A análise acústica foi utilizada para verificar as diferenças de produção entre os três estilos, enquanto a perceptiva, que implicou na aplicação de um questionário de diferencial semântico a um grupo de juízes, foi utilizada para investigar o impacto impressivo da sonoridade dos estilos mencionados. Pela análise acústica foi possível verificar, por meio de medidas de frequência fundamental, intensidade, duração e declínio espectral, as características prosódicas de cada um dos estilos de palavra. Pela análise perceptiva, os resultados apresentados mostram como cada estilo de palavra atinge de maneira diferente os ouvintes, pois a avaliação dos descritores selecionados para avaliá-los mostrou-se diferenciada, evidenciando efeitos impressivos diversos. Os resultados das análises acústica e perceptiva foram correlacionados por meio de testes estatísticos de análise multidimensional. As prosódias das palavras cantada, falada e declamada apresentam diferenças, como mostrou os valores gerados pelo script ExpressionEvaluator (BARBOSA, 2009). Portanto, concluímos que as palavras cantada, falada e declama causam efeitos impressivos diversos que ativam o organismo de maneira diferenciada e têm como papel social comunicar

<p>In recent years there has been an upsurge in products and activities designed for infants, what is known as baby culture. The essay is a discourse analysis covering the part of baby culture which is concerned with infants and books. The essay studies texts from libraries and children’s bookclubs in order to understand what it is they communicate, to whom and the conceivable consequences of the communicated message. One of the main purposes of the study is to determine what view of infants as social and cultural beings it  is that arises from the texts. The essay also focuses on the different discourse types used in the discourse on infants and books and to what extent the libraries’ and the bookclubs’ way of reasoning on the subject is differing. The theoretical basis of the study is inspired by Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis and concentrates on the communicative event. The method used is detailed textual analysis rooted in Fairclough’s three- dimensional model of discursive practice, text and social practice. The empirical material consists of texts from information folders, websites etc. The result of the analysis shows that the discourse on infants and books is very similar in the two domains and derives from a wider market- oriented discourse. The discourse constitutes infants as primarily early learners with the inherent potential of becoming a baby genius. The discourse also constitutes a good reading parent who invests in his/her child’s future by stimulating their brain development from a very early age. An examination of the baby market discourse shows that it is a hybrid discourse consisting of various discourse types from diverse (knowledge) domains such as medicine, psychology and pedagogy. The analysis shows how market discourses have infiltrated the discourses of public institutions such as the library and how it affects the way subject entities are constructed.</p>