Gary Saul Morson is a well-published scholar of literature, specifically Slavic-language literature. Unlike some texts by non-folklorists that are reviewed in JFRR, Morson’s volume is not an attempt on his part to dabble in folklore or folkloristics. The Words of Others is an exploration of verbal quotation, in both written and oral contexts. As such, the topic of this book bears on the work and research of many folklorists, but it bears remembering that Morson is not writing for a folklore audience. Rather, he is writing for a broader audience that includes anyone interested in words and their uses by speakers and writers. With that in mind, The Words of Others proves to be a very interesting and useful volume to folklorists and other researchers exploring speech, identity, authorship, and authority.
Morson’s goal in this book is to dig into quotation, not as a literary device, but as an intellectual concept and a deliberate cultural act. As might be expected from a literary scholar, he draws many examples from literature, ranging from George Eliot to Fyodor Dostoevsky, but he does not confine himself to the literary. Explorations of anthologies and books of quotations sit alongside works of fiction, “famous last words,” and even epitaphs, as Morson explores the many ways in which people use words to convey a sense of solemnity, importance, power, and even authority. This book transcends rhetorical theory in placing quotation into various contexts. In so doing, The Words of Others becomes a book less about the quotation itself and more about quotation as an act. In discussing the grave of the ancient Greek commander Leonidas, Morson states that “this epitaph achieves power as a summarizing moment in the narrative it concludes” (202). Rather than being a simple statement, this quotation is part of a larger narrative process. Examinations of context play an enormous part in this work’s analysis of quotation, making Morson’s subtitle, From Quotation to Culture, ring very true.
Morson draws on the insights and ideas of many fields in crafting The Words of Others, and it is evident that folklore is in the mix. Most obviously, he thanks Dan Ben-Amos and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett in his acknowledgements (ix), but there are several hints throughout the text that folklore theory is informing Morson’s arguments. Several obvious examples can be found, e.g., “Just as ‘myth’ does not necessarily mean ‘lie,’ so ‘folklore’ need not be a synonym for unsubstantiated belief. Does it make sense to ask what is the correct text of a joke?” (17). There are also places in the book where it is reasonable to guess that some folkloristic theory has influenced the discussion: “The various genres of quotation—wise sayings, aphorisms, maxims, proverbs, witticisms, heroic pronouncements, adages, and many more—constitute the shortest literary forms. Their concision not only makes them easy to memorize but also offers considerable aesthetic power” (9-10). From its beginnings, the field of folklore has been discussing the aesthetic and compact nature of folk speech that aids in its retention and transmission.
One of Morson’s most interesting and important insights in this text is that “[t]he undigested is quoted, the assimilated is not” (50). According to Morson, to put something in the form of a quote marks it as somehow out of context, as somehow other. Further, the otherness marked or created by a quotation can be employed in many culturally useful ways. “When we tell stories about others, we may employ a similar irony of quotation, by mocking the way they speak” (48), a statement that brings to mind James Leary’s (2001) and Christie Davies’ (1996) analyses of jokes and mocking behavior. Both Leary and Davies examine how otherness and familiarity work in balance to foster the humor in mocking situations, an idea that Morson echoes in his discussion.
Another place where The Words of Others brushes up against others’ cultural analysis of words and speech is in his more abstract discussion of quoting. “As there is mimicry, quotation of a gesture, there is also what might be called ‘topicry,’ quotation of a place. Towns, farms, villages, and any other place people construct can be quoted. In Colonial Williamsburg […] quotation of place includes quotation of actions characteristic of the place” (75). This conversation recalls Regina Bendix’s discussions of authenticity (1997), of course, but the exploration of quoting places is tantalizingly brief. Like Tantalus, the reader is still a bit thirsty. Other parts of Morson’s book touch on the same authenticity territory, but the analysis is never fully realized. For example, when explaining some differences between quotation and cliché, Morson claims that people “use clichés to shut down diversity of judgment. When we want to open a question, we use a quotation, because in most cases a quotation easily allows for an answer. It reminds us of wisdom that might have been overlooked” (63). Combined with the previous quoted section, this bit of the book is touching on ideas covered in Keith Basso’s Wisdom Sits in Places (1996). However, the reader is left to make those connections.
It must be reiterated that Morson is not a folklorist, and he is not writing strictly for an audience of folklorists. This statement isn’t meant as a criticism. There is much of interest and value to folklorists in The Words of Others. This is a book that will be useful in broadening and deepening theoretical arguments, and the abstract discussion of quotation that Morson presents will fit easily into many different conversations. Because of the tangential nature of this book to more straightforwardly folkloristic questions, it may not be suitable for lower-level classrooms. As a supplementary text for research and higher-level undergraduate and graduate courses, especially those focusing on speech, identity, and verbal folklore, Morson’s book can be a very useful addition.
WORKS CITED
Basso, Keith. 1996. Wisdom Sits in Places. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Bendix, Regina. 1997. In Search of Authenticity. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Davies, Christie. 1996. Ethnic Humor around the World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Leary, James. 2001. So Ole Says to Lena: Folk Humor of the Upper Midwest. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
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[Review length: 1018 words • Review posted on October 11, 2011]