Orality

Melville, Conrad, and London all labored as common sailors before becoming writers. Their sea works reflect the oral world in which they served far more than has been previously acknowledged and are susceptible to the deep analysis provided by theories of orality. This chapter draws on the work of Walter J. Ong, Johan Galtung, Greg Dening, Alessandro Portelli, Cesare Casarino, Hester Blum, and Margaret Cohen to investigate orality and its manifestation on board ship and in sailor language. These theoretical discussions form useful tools in the analysis of sea literature and of the universal questions raised by the oral quality of sea literature. At what point does the shifting quality of an oral story render it untrue? And what does it mean to be true? It considers elements of orality in sea literature, such as the use of repetition, the rendering of multiple voices, and the problem of reproducing silence. The latter is especially important in Conrad, a writer who employs silence, ellipses, and misdirection.