D-02 Capturing Oral Voice
Abstract
The sound of a narrator telling a story can be difficult to depict in written prose, and yet both Ovid and Twain were able to capture the sound of an old man telling a story; Twain in “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” and Ovid through “Nestor’s Story” in The Metamorphoses. Ovid’s The Metamorphosis involves several stories within a story and utilizes a more “chaotic” structure then other epics, allowing him the freedom to capture Nestor’s rambling. Nearly two centuries later, Twain uses a frame story, but unlike other contemporary works, he respects the subject’s style of speaking and represents both the dialect and the rambling way of which the narrator communicates.
Start Date
10-25-2019 2:00 PM
D-02 Capturing Oral Voice
The sound of a narrator telling a story can be difficult to depict in written prose, and yet both Ovid and Twain were able to capture the sound of an old man telling a story; Twain in “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” and Ovid through “Nestor’s Story” in The Metamorphoses. Ovid’s The Metamorphosis involves several stories within a story and utilizes a more “chaotic” structure then other epics, allowing him the freedom to capture Nestor’s rambling. Nearly two centuries later, Twain uses a frame story, but unlike other contemporary works, he respects the subject’s style of speaking and represents both the dialect and the rambling way of which the narrator communicates.
Acknowledgments
J.N. Andrews Honors Scholar and Undergraduate Research Scholar
Mentor: Douglas Jones, English