The Close Ties between Understanding and Performing Literature

The Close Ties Between Understanding and Performing Literature

Oral interpretation is an art in which a piece is read dramatically as per the performer's interpretation. The performer works to understand the author's intent and convey a message or get a response from the audience. The pieces performed can range from just about anything, from award-winning literature and poetry to the more obscure such as magazines and scientific journals. The three main purposes of oral interpretation are for textual analysis, communicative intent, and to work on performance skills. In many ways it can resemble dramatic theatre, often causing confusion about the difference between the two arts.

While they are very similar, there are still many key differences between the two, While oral interpretation encompasses almost all literary texts that can be interpreted as previously mentioned, acting primarily concerns pieces of drama. Oral interpretation also primarily focuses on suggestion rather than reenactment as acting does. They also differ in the actual means of stage performance. With oral interpretation, the focus is most generally offstage rather than focusing on fellow actors or props.

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The performer can also choose to take on multiple roles, especially if it is a single person piece rather than a group piece. While there are exceptions, actors typically only take on the persona of one character while other roles are given to other actors. Finally, with oral interpretation, the performer is the final decision-maker with a piece, They make the majority of choices, including: what excerpt to do, whether or not to cut the piece due to time constraints, whether to combine multiple pieces, and what interpretive choices to make. This is a contrast to acting, in which the director of the show is the ultimate decision maker.

In any case there is one central focus: the literature chosen. It is the center stage of any performance. The chosen literature serves as the basis of everything, from interpretation to tone to a performance in itself. The literature must first be understood though before any significant headway can be made. It is because of this that comprehending and presenting literature go hand in hand.

When it comes to understanding literature, the performer must make careful decisions in choosing a piece of literature to perform. After all, the piece chosen is what the audience is going to see and is what is going to send the message the interpreter is looking to convey. There is no specific tone for oral interpretation; it can be comedic for a more light-hearted mood, heart wrenching, or even a combination of the two. It all depends on the mood and message that the performer is wanting to convey. There are three guidelines that people typically follow when selecting a piece: universality, individuality, and suggestion.

Universality is how connectable a piece is. The more universal a piece is, the more people are going to understand. For example, a piece relating to a certain group being ostracized may not be as relatable to many people as a piece describing an emotion such as heartbreak. Individuality is how creative and stylish a piece is. It's what makes it stand out as unique. Many people look to perform pieces that not many people have done before and that will stick with the audience. It doesn't necessarily need to be anything outlandish, but have something--such as word choice or style--that makes it unique.

Suggestion is the mystery left over in a piece. It's the little details left out to leave people wanting more. Too much suggestion can be a bad thing, but often times it leaves the reader thinking about a piece as they try to fill in the gaps with their own imagination. After a piece is chosen, it is then that it can be further broken down into elements such as word choice and tone. Researching the author can provide further insight into the understanding process.

Performing literature follows a similar process of careful assessment and choices. While it does allow the performer more leeway in presenting a piece, it still depends on how the literature was understood and interpreted in the first place. When understanding literature you need to look into several factors already presented in the text. The original authors provide the basis, such as the ideas, words, and structure. The performance itself, however, brings in the personal experiences of both the author and the interpreter.

The new means of interpretation breaths life into a piece of text, allowing the same piece to be expressed in a multitude of ways. While it is the literature itself that provides the message and rhetorical choices, the performer is the final creator of rhetoric by conveying it further through their interpretation. A different understanding provides a completely different performance.

For example, one of our assignments in Oral Interpretation was to write a personal memoir. In this memoir, we were to vividly describe a moment in our lives that had some impact or that we just remembered well. For my piece, I chose to write about the time my boyfriend and I took a trip to Chicago in the dead of winter. More specifically, I chose to write about my experience in riding the subway there everyday was like.

This moment stood out to me because not only was it the first time I had gone on a trip without my family, but there were so many unique and interesting moments that had me thinking about the subway rides long after our trip had ended. As such, I wrote about the wide variety of people I encountered in the dingy subway cars and just the overall peacefulness of zooming through Chicago at night. I put my own personal experiences to paper. I chose what words to put down, what events I would include and exclude, and the overall tone.

I knew what I had felt, but other people certainly wouldn't be able to share my same exact experiences or emotions. This was exemplified during the next part of the assignment. Everyone in the class turned in their memoirs before they were shuffled and dispersed randomly. I received a piece that a classmate had written about how they much preferred being free in a book than trapped with the struggles of real life. While I had had similar experiences (being an introvert who enjoys reading as well) I had never had the exact experience that the author had described. Because of this, I had to try my best to understand the memoir, to see it from their perspective and interpret as such in a performance.

There was no way I could know how the author was feeling at certain parts, or how they had pictured it in their head while writing, I read the text through several times using different strategies of analyzing the text, such as the use of rhetorical language and the connotation of certain words. It was then up to me to present this piece that I had read to the class. Going from author to performer to audience, there is no doubt in my mind that everyone got a different understanding of it through my performance. That is what makes the art so interesting: everyone gets a different interpretation based on their own previous knowledge, their own personal experiences.

I witnessed this firsthand as well when I saw my memoir performed. The performer of my piece had a different understanding, but the humanity of it connected and she was able to give a very convincing performance. Was it exactly what I had pictured in my head as I reminisced what I had felt during that trip? Not quite, but that is what made it so unique. The core message was there, but different tones were presented through my writing alone that I may not have realized otherwise unless through the eyes of another performer.

Both understanding literature and performing literature go hand in hand. It is through analysis that we are able to build the framework of a performance in the first place. At the same time, performing literature can give us a deeper understanding by providing different insights and viewpoints. If the literature being performed is not properly understood, it can result in a less than satisfactory presentation. It can leave an audience feeling underwhelmed and even a bit frustrated that they were not necessarily presented something with fulfilled potential.

An example of this could be if a piece was blatantly written by the author to have a more mournful tone and yet the performer chooses to present it in a comedic light. This can be especially bad if the performance is for a competition or an actual show. On the other hand, if a piece of literature is performed poorly it can severely impact the understanding and intent. This can also leave the audience dissatisfied. Either way the author's intent is often misconstrued. It is because of this that each element, both understanding and performing, needs to be carefully considered. If one is neglected the other aspect will surely suffer as well. Not only can this reflect badly on the performer, but can even lead all the way to the author themselves. Both elements are equally important.

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