For over fifty years, Oral Interpretation has successfully prepared readers to analyze and perform literature
through an accessible, step-by-step process. The authors classic commitment to helping readers understand literature
then to embody and evoke the work has been refined to offer a more concise, user-friendly process that will help
them succeed in their daunting first performance.
Updated with a tightly edited collection of classic and contemporary selections, each chapter provides a wide variety
of selections for learners at all levels. Chapters devoted to each genre---narrative, poetry, drama, group performance-explore
the unique challenges of each form while newly revised chapters on Using the Body and Using the Voice in performance
introduce readers to technical exercises to promote performance flexibility.
Table of Contents
Part One - Basic Principles Chapter One - A Beginning and an End Expect This! Interpretation Requires Communicating Interpretation Engages an Audience Interpretation Involves a Literary Work in Its Intellectual and Emotional Entirety Interpretation Celebrates a Literary Work in Its Aesthetic Entirety Important Early Questions: Why Perform? Is this Acting? Sources of Material Intertextuality Choosing Your Selection: Three Touchstones Preliminary Analysis: Hoyt's Poem Preliminary Analysis: Dickinson's Poem Preliminary Analysis: Sherman's Story Remember This! Bibliography Chapter Two - Analyzing the Selection Expect This! Preparing the First Performance Major Structural Components Major Aesthetic Components Using the Tools Synthesis Analyzing the Rehearsal and the Performance Remember This! Selections for Analysis and Oral Interpretation Bibliography ChapterThree - Voice Development for Oral Interpretation Expect This! Relaxation Technique Breath Control Volume and Projection Pitch and Quality Rate and Pause Intelligibility of Speech Dialect Remember This! Selections for Analysis and Oral Interpretation Bibliography Chapter Four - Use of the Body in Oral Interpretation Expect This! Technique Posture Kinesics Sense Imagery Empathy Using Your Body in Rehearsal Eye Contact Analyzing the Rehearsal and the Performance Remember This! Selections for Analysis and Oral Interpretation Bibliography Part Two - Interpretation of Prose Chapter Five - Style and Types in Fiction and Nonfiction Expect This! Style Types of Prose Remember This! Selections for Analysis and Oral Interpretation Bibliography Chapter Six - Narration Expect This! Who Is Telling the Story? Point of View What Is Going on Here? Action and Plot What Sort of People Live in This Story? Character What Are They Saying to Each Other? Dialogue Creating Character Where Is All This Taking Plac
