The Memoirs of the Oratory

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The Memoirs of the Oratory

• As a narrative text

2
Don Boscos writing 1

• DB as a writer is moderate, essential, clear and
  effective
• He demonstrates a command of narrative writing
• He is more immediate and to the point in
  recounting facts often spoken of viva voce and in
  talking of dreams full of details

3
Don Boscos writing 2

• His dialogues are fluent
• At times the dialogue highlights pastoral and
  educational attitudes dear to him
• At other times he is apologetic he shows things
  or argues with things passionately
• At other times he is intimate and spiritual
• While at other times he is ordinary, popular
• Clear ability, refined over long period, to
  compose,

4
Don Boscos writing 3

• In scenes where he presents a typology of
  characters threaded with caricature the writing
  is very effective
• He puts together tiny but complete tales of
  adventure
• Tonal variety and shades of meaning
• All in function of a narrative plan with great
  symbolic, practical intensity

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Structure of the text 1

• Narrative order
• Events are not imagined
• DB needed to work on a range of memories, events,
  emotions, sensations experienced over different
  periods
• And he needed to order them according to a
  certain order their reference to the Oratory of
  St. Francis de Sales

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Structure of the text 2

• Surface structure
• (chronology as organising principle)
• Spatial structure
• (geography as organising principle)
• Deep structure
• (inner organising principle)

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Structure of the text 3

• The surface structure (declared in the
  introduction) is sub-divided into Decades
• Ten years of early childhood
• 1825-1835
• 1835-1845
• 1845-1855
• Chapters , within these decades, highlight
• The characters formational journey on the one
  hand
• The progressive appearance and shaping of
  elements which make up the Oratory

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Structure of the text 4

• Spatial structure
• DB attributes particular value to places and
  settings where his oratorian vocation developed
  These are points on a symbolic map
• The variety and succession of places becomes an
  important organising principle for the narrative
  values linked with spaces
• Change of place pilgrimage towards the promised
  land of the Oratory

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Structure of the text 5

• The deep structure (beneath the surface)
• Is made up of
• DBs value systems
• Beliefs
• Mental framework (mentality, culture)
• Emerges free, beyond any formal division
• Behind it all there is DB the man, with his
  entire inner universe

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Structure of the text 6

• This deep element (very much alive in the MO)
  gives the document intense polysemic value and
  makes it most precious for us
• The various organisational structures enrich the
  overall scene with its glimpses and multi-faceted
  views, with tones and shades of meaning which
  attrracts a range of readers with different
  interests

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Levels of interpretation 1

• Ideal readers DB had in mind
• Salesians of the 70s of the 19th century
• with well-defined mental features
• equipped with a bagful of tools for
  interpretation identical to his own,
• a kind of spirituality typical for his setting
• a theological and pedagogical terminology with
  meanings different to our own

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Levels of interpretation 2

• The interpretation of the MO and full
  understanding of the authors intentions
  requires
• A certain preparation
• An historical acclimatisation
• An appropriate lexicon and encyclopaedia