Topic: Oral Literature and History

Catalog description

This service learning course will focus on the traditions of oral literature and oral history, including storytelling, folktales, and oral memoir. In addition to online class discussion and analysis of selected texts, students will serve elderly residents of nursing homes or lower-income housing by visiting them on a regular basis to record their memories and stories. Working with the professor, students will develop their own project by contacting local advocates for the elderly, finding a person to interview and scheduling visits. These visits will help students gain a hands-on experience in oral literature and history, while offering the elderly interviewee companionship and the opportunity to speak about his or her life to the larger world (through the Web archive we will create). The interview tapes will be transcribed to create an electronic archive of oral literature and history, which will be published on the Dyson college webpage, creating a resource for students, the elderly participants and anyone interested in oral history. Restrictions/Requirements: Junior or Senior standing (minimum 64 credits).