Charles L. Briggs

In Competence in Performance, Charles L. Briggs explores the nature of the gift of oral performance and the competence that underlies that ability. His study focuses on rural Hispanic communities in northern New Mexico. There, individuals, particularly older people, are highly respected for their ability to use language both beautifully and persuasively, prompting their listeners to look beyond appearances to grasp the deeper meaning of the performance. Briggs elucidates the contributions of each genre--proverbs, scriptural allusions, jokes, legends, treasure tales, hymns and prayers--to the Mexicans' struggle to survive as a community, showing how the meaning of a given performance arises from a creative interaction between the worlds of reality and imagination. The author argues that the differing ways in which each performance, performer, and genre relate text and context underlie the power and creativity of verbal art and he suggests that analyzing this process will provide crucial insights into the nature of communicative competence in general. Competence in Performance will be of interest to scholars and students of folklore, anthropology, linguistics, and oral history, was well as ethnomethodology and literary criticism.

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