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Western SpeechPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rwjc17

Everybody creates?Frederic W. Hile aa University of WashingtonPublished online: 06 Jun 2009.

To cite this article: Frederic W. Hile (1951) Everybody creates?, Western Speech,15:1, 9-9, DOI: 10.1080/10570315109373465

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10570315109373465

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A LETTER FROM AN ENGLISH TEACHER 9

techniques, modes of projection, "tricks • AND SO TO REPEAT AND CONCLUDE, Iof the trade" to be analyzed. There see no reason whatever why the contentwill be that extremely difficult question in oral interpretation should not be anyto clarify: what really is form in poetry anc[ everything which promotes skill in—form as something more than mechan- reading, whether this be for others orical or logical arrangement. f o r o n e s e l f S u c h a g o a l i n e x o r a b l y de-

This, of course, is a tall order. But , ., . , . r .1 . t .., , , . , . mands the inclusion of the art of poetry

granted that the instructor be somewhat ,, , . , . ..1 u. DI » • • • L A • . 1 • as well as the art of its presentation,less than rlato in insight, Aristotle in „ . . , ,analysis, still from a study of this kind T o C o n f i n e l t s PrOV,inCe t 0 * e l a " e r 'the student should derive a generous o r t o question its right to embrace moreunderstanding of poetry. Nor will it be i s t 0 menace its very objective. Onlydead terminology, random fact, but an i f t n e e n d sought is itself trivial ororganized knowledge that cannot but stupid may the issue be raised. Andyield a more accurate and more sensi- until poetry is forgotten among mentive reading of poetry. who would dare to say that?

EVERYBODY CREATES?[Last spring the University of Washington presented a program called "North-

west Kaleidoscope" as an experiment in oral interpretation. The program carriedan unusually interesting "forward." In a short space it said much. The editor askedMr. Bile for permission to print it for Western Speech readers.]

• As you participate in this experience (as a listener) you help to revive anancient art — certainly as old as Greece — possibly as old as Man. "Oral Interpre-tation" is a modern term describing an ancient function. The "actor" of ancientGreece was no "actor" within the modern meaning of that term. Instead, he wasan "interpreter." That is, he revealed the values of an author's material; not,through realistic representation, but through presentation by suggestion and im-plication. The success and efficiency of this process lies partly in the author's skill,partly in the interpreter's skill and partly in the susceptibility of the listener to thesuggestions made by author and interpreter.

"Great" literature is "great" not because of an academic conspiracy, but be-cause it speaks with vitality and efficiency to men about basic aspects of life. Tobe adequately "interpreted" it must first so speak to the interpreter. His task thenis to convey his own vital, covert, inner experience and insight to his listener: thishe does through the disciplined overt responses of his voice and body.

A final word:— the memory of the horrors of elocution is still green. Theamazing excesses of this late "wonder" arose from some of the same misconcep-tions about the function of speech that produced the flamboyant oratory of anearlier day. Speech is a distinctive human function whose central purpose is theachievement of an efficient exchange or communication between speaker andlistener. To the extent that you regard this experience as a "show" or "display" or"exhibition," or confuse the interpreter with what he is interpreting — to that extentwe shall have failed. " -v;

— FREDERIC W. HILE

University of Washington.

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