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Richard Bauman

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description Richard Bauman Overview

Richard Bauman is an American folklorist, anthropologist and linguistic anthropologist whose work examines language as situated social action. He is especially associated with the study of verbal performance, including how speakers use genre, framing, audience and communicative context to shape events such as storytelling and public speech. His publications connect folklore, linguistic anthropology, semiotics and the ethnography of communication, and he served as a professor at Indiana University. [Indiana University](https://anthropology.indiana.edu/about/emeriti/bauman-richard.html)

help Richard Bauman FAQ

What does Richard Bauman mean by verbal performance?

Bauman treats speaking as a form of social action in which people use genre, framing, style, audience, and delivery to make meaning. Performance does not have to happen on a stage; a story, ritual speech, joke, or public statement can all be analyzed as performance.

What is Verbal Art as Performance?

Verbal Art as Performance is Richard Bauman's influential study of spoken language, folklore, and communicative events. The book was published in 1977 and helped connect folkloristics with linguistic anthropology. [Source](https://folklore.indiana.edu/research/publications/emeriti-publications/1984-verbal-art.html)

How does Richard Bauman's approach differ from treating folklore as text?

A text-centered approach may focus mainly on the words that were recorded, while Bauman also asks how, where, and to whom the words were delivered. The same story can carry different social force depending on the speaker's authority, the audience, and the setting.

Why are audience and framing important in Bauman's anthropology?

Audience and framing tell listeners how to interpret an utterance, such as whether it is a joke, a formal ritual, a personal story, or a claim of authority. These cues help explain why the same sentence can function differently in a family conversation and a public ceremony.

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