RICHARD BAUMAN

Shortlisted for Katharine Briggs Folklore Award 2005. Drawing on a broad range of oral performances and literary records from Iceland, Ireland, Scotland, North America, Ghana, and Fiji, linguistic anthropologist and folklorist Richard Bauman presents a series of ethnographic case studies that offer an innovative and illuminating look at intertextuality as communicative practice. Bauman uses his introduction to lay a framework for the analysis of genre, performance, and intertextuality as discursive accomplishments. He goes on to examine the ways that performers blend genres and then explores how they manage intertextual links or gaps by aligning texts in discursive practice. Finally, Bauman draws together these threads and turns his insights to a critical consideration of ethnographic practice itself, bringing into reflexive awareness the ways that ethnography positions us in a world of others' words. Drawing on his work in Iceland, Ireland, Scotland, North America, Ghana, and Fiji, linguistic anthropologist and folklorist Richard Bauman presents a series of ethnographic case studies that offer a sparkling look at intertextuality as communicative practice. A fascinating perspective on intertextuality: the idea that written and spoken texts speak to one another, e.g. through genre or allusions. Presents a series of ethnographic case studies to illustrate the topic. Draws on a broad range of oral performances and literary records from across the world. The author's introduction sets a framework for the analysis of genre, perform and intertextuality. Shows how performers blend genres, e.g., telling stories about riddles or legends about magical verses, or constructing sales pitches.

Language and tradition have long been relegated to the sidelines as scholars have considered the role of politics, science, technology and economics in the making of the modern world. This novel reading of over two centuries of philosophy, political theory, anthropology, folklore and history argues that new ways of imagining language and representing supposedly premodern people - the poor, labourers, country folk, non-europeans and women - made political and scientific revolutions possible. The connections between language ideologies, privileged linguistic codes, and political concepts and practices shape the diverse ways we perceive ourselves and others. Bauman and Briggs demonstrate that contemporary efforts to make schemes of social inequality based on race, gender, class and nationality seem compelling and legitimate, rely on deeply-rooted ideas about language and tradition. Showing how critics of modernity unwittingly reproduce these foundational fictions, they suggest new strategies for challenging the undemocratic influence of these voices of modernity.