Orality Journal
7
Editor’s Note
Samuel E. Chiang
Participation: Into the “heart” of the matter
I just purchased five more Bollywood films. The last Indian film I saw, 3
Idiots, literally had me in gut-busting laughter and tears of deep sympathy.
Upon reflection, I realized that I was living in the story and identifying
with its characters; touching my heart were the many poignant moments
where my mind was lassoed into focus and in agreement with my heartfelt stimulation. I was participating in the story!
In a world where digitally-communicated visuals are often told from the
digital-technorati’s view-point—and not necessarily aimed to capture the
imagination of the audience—Bollywood has not sought to join in this
trend. The imagination of the audience is still primary, and the participation
of the individual vital.
Readerly or Writerly or Producerly Text?
Interaction and participation with stories, or "text," is an interest of
the French literary theorist and philosopher, Roland Barthesi. Against a
backdrop of shifting literary conventions in twentieth century novel writing
away from the realism portrayed in classical novels, Barthes distinguishes
two categories of text: readerly and writerly. Barthes identifies classical
novels of preceding centuries as “readerly text”: products that treat the
reader/audience as mere receivers of a set of fixed, formulaic structures
and meaning. “Writerly texts,” by contrast, invite the reader to become a
"co-writer" of the text, providing the space and freedom to create meaning
apart from that intended by the author. In this regard, Paulo Freireii, the
brilliant Brazilian educational philosopher, would concur with both the
“readerly and writerly” descriptive, and functionally support the writerly
approach to learning and knowledge co-creation.
Locating these descriptive ideas in the emergence of popular culture
(pop culture), John Fiskeiii prescribed Barthes's conversation of text to
include television series, movies, and other forms of media (including
videos, paintings, etc.). Conscious of these new "texts" and media,
Fiske synthesizes Barthes's categories, offering “producerly text” as a
way of describing the media of popular culture. In “producerly text”