I've been meaning to get a copy of this since Christian mentioned it to me a while back- but I haven't gotten around to it yet!
My comments from that conversation:
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Sounds like typical high-browed cultural criticism/theoretical anthropology, thanks to buzz words like:
'performative emotion', 'mnemonics', 'gendered..ritual'. I liked reading that stuff once- when I was in graduate school...but I much prefer experiential anthropology/ethnomusicology texts these days
Haven't come across this one yet, but Fiona Magowan is a pretty well-known name.
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Interestingly Strehlow is criticized in Broken Song, for transcribing the original Aranda myths, he spent much of his life collecting out bush, into a very European epic style. When these are compared with the simple pidgin English versions of the same myths collected by others, it makes me feel uncomfortable with the liberties he has taken. I am reminded of the simple translation of myths given in ‘Djalu Plays and teaches Yirdaki, volume 2.
Hi Paul:
I think this is a challenge that many research anthropologists/literary scholars face when approaching source material from outside of their own culture and experience, and are also reflective of a specific period in the evolution of a discipline. While there may be the belief that those simple pidgin versions are somehow closer to the original meaning and then more 'authentic' (I put this in quotes because I don't believe this to be the case- my own perspective as a theory-based cultural critic from my graduate schools days), the epic style in which Strehlow writes conveys the depth of the stories/mythos to a European audience. I often use the example of John Csiardi's transliteration of Dante's 'The Divine Comedy' compared to the more stylistically modern version done by Robert Pinsky. The Italian verse form of 'terza rema' employed by Dante is allegorically rich and meaty, weaving concepts through early medieval Italian and its many rhyming words. English, in comparison, is less lyrical when forced into 'terza rema' so while Csiardi tried to retain the lyrical beauty in his translation, I find that comprehension suffers. By contrast, Pinsky's freeverse version focuses on the 'readability' of 'The Inferno' specifically- becauses his own philosophy is one of 'poetry for the masses'.
I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts, Guan.
