Coming from a culture that has no written language and only relied on oral traditions until the 1950s; everything before that was spoken through the mouth and kept in memorization and then passed on to future generations.
I've seen many foreign films that has been based on folktales that I grew up hearing from my father and grandfather. But then these stories were also told to my father/grandfather by their parents and/or grandparents. They would disagree to such scenes that they think has sabotage the "true" and "original" story. Their remarks would be "that's not how the story goes". But then what is the "original" story? Who was the first to tell the "original" story?
This notion of storytelling brings up the question that was asked in class the other day (about the famous children's fairy tales we grew up hearing), who is the first person to tell such story? Would it be considered plagiarism when there are so many books published or made into movies about the same story but failing to give credits to the author or the owner of the story?
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4 comments:
First of all it sounds like you come into this course with a very unique perspective on authorship and writing. That's very cool. I'm sure your experiences contain interesting insights into the subjects we'll be discussing.
Anyway, the situation with crediting a source is an interesting one. The example mentioned was the Disney movies based on fairy tales (I think we can all name a few). I think because there is no clear originator to these tales, and because they have more or less entered the realm of common knowledge, Disney does not have anything to fear in the form of legal action. This is, of course, convenient in that they need not share a penny of their shameless merchandising with anyone.
The idea of passing on the intricacies of heritage and history through the use of memory and oral tradition is vey fascinating and impressive to me. I agree that it creates some vast grey areas in the definition of plagiarism. In particular, I think it would be difficult to assign profit to those who reproduce tradtional stories.
Really cool. What cultural background do you come from?
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