African Oral Literature

Author : Ruth Finnegan
Publisher : Open Book Publishers
Page : 614 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2012-09
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781906924706

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Oral Literature in Africa by Ruth Finnegan Pdf

Ruth Finnegan's Oral Literature in Africa was first published in 1970, and since then has been widely praised as one of the most important books in its field. Based on years of fieldwork, the study traces the history of storytelling across the continent of Africa. This revised edition makes Finnegan's ground-breaking research available to the next generation of scholars. It includes a new introduction, additional images and an updated bibliography, as well as its original chapters on poetry, prose, "drum language" and drama, and an overview of the social, linguistic and historical background of oral literature in Africa. This book is the first volume in the World Oral Literature Series, an ongoing collaboration between OBP and World Oral Literature Project. A free online archive of recordings and photographs that Finnegan made during her fieldwork in the late 1960s is hosted by the World Oral Literature Project (http: //www.oralliterature.org/collections/rfinnegan001.html) and can also be accessed from publisher's website.

Author : Isidore Okpewho
Publisher : Indiana University Press
Page : 412 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 1992-09-22
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 025320710X

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African Oral Literature by Isidore Okpewho Pdf

". . . its pages come alive with wonderful illustrative material coupled with sensitve and insightful commentary." —Reviews in Anthropology " . . . the scope, breadth, and lucidity of this excellent study confirm that Okpewho is undoubtedly the most important authority writing on African oral literature right now . . . " —Research in African Literatures "Truly a tour de force of individual scholarship . . . " —World Literature Today " . . . excellent . . . " —African Affairs " . . . a thorough synthesis of the main issues of oral literature criticism, as well as a grounding in experienced fieldwork, a wide-ranging theoretical base, and a clarity of argument rare among academics." —Multicultural Review "This is a breathtakingly ambitious project . . . " —Harold Scheub " . . . a definitive accounting of the evidence of living oral traditions in Africa today. Professor Okpewho's authority as an expert in this important new field is unrivaled." —Gregory Nagy "Isidore Okpewho's African Oral Literature is a marvelous piece of scholarship and wide-ranging research. It presents the most comprehensive survey of the field of oral literature in Africa." —Emmanuel Obiechina " . . . a tour de force of scholarship in which Okpewho casts his net across the African continent, searching for its verbal forms through voluminous recent writings and presents African oral literature in a new voice, proclaiming the literariness of African folklore." —Dan Ben-Amos "This is an outstanding book by a scholar whose work has already influenced how African literature should be conceived. . . . Professor Okpewho is a scholar with a special talent to nurture scholarship in others. After this work, African literature will never be the same." —Mazisi Kunene Isidore Okpewho, for many years Professor of English at the University of Ibadan, is one of the handful of African scholars who has facilitated the growth of African oral literature to its status today as a literary enterprise concerned with the artistic foundations of human culture. This comprehensive critical work firmly establishes oral literature as a landmark of high artistic achievement and situates it within the broader framework of contemporary African culture.

Author : Akintunde Akinyemi,Toyin Falola
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 1041 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2021-03-05
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9783030555177

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The Palgrave Handbook of African Oral Traditions and Folklore by Akintunde Akinyemi,Toyin Falola Pdf

This handbook offers the most comprehensive, analytic, and multidisciplinary study of oral traditions and folklore in Africa and the African Diaspora to date. Preeminent scholars Akintunde Akinyemi and Toyin Falola assemble a team of leading and rising stars across African Studies research to retrieve and renew the scholarship of oral traditions and folklore in Africa and the Diaspora just as critical concerns about their survival are pushed to the forefront of the field. With five sections on the central themes within orality and folklore – including engagement ranging from popular culture to technology, methods to pedagogy – this handbook is an indispensable resource to scholars, students, and practitioners of oral traditions and folklore preservation alike. This definitive reference is the first to provide detailed, systematic discussion, and up-to-date analysis of African oral traditions and folklore.

Author : Russell Kaschula
Publisher : New Africa Books
Page : 316 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2001
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 1919876073

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African Oral Literature by Russell Kaschula Pdf

Throughout Africa, oral literature is flourishing, though it is perceived by some as anachronistic to the modern world. This work refutes this idea in its entirety by presenting 22 chapters, which firmly place the study of oral literature within contemporary African existence. The study analyzes how oral literature relates to media, music, technology, text, gender, religion, power, politics and globalization.

Author : Nduka Otiono,Chiji Akọma
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 213 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2021-05-31
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781000397536

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Oral Literary Performance in Africa by Nduka Otiono,Chiji Akọma Pdf

This book delivers an admirably comprehensive and rigorous analysis of African oral literatures and performance. Gathering insights from distinguished scholars in the field, the book provides a range of contemporary interdisciplinary perspectives in the study of oral literature and its transformations in everyday life, fiction, poetry, popular culture, and postcolonial politics. Topics discussed include folklore and folklife; oral performance and masculinities; intermediated orality, modern transformations, and globalisation; orality and mass media; spoken word and imaginative writing. The book also addresses research methodologies and the thematic and theoretical trajectories of scholars of African oral literatures, looking back to the trailblazing legacies of Ruth Finnegan, Harold Scheub, and Isidore Okpewho. Ambitious in scope and incisive in its analysis, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of African literatures and oral performance as well as to general readers interested in the dynamics of cultural production.

Author : Jane Nandwa
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 174 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 1983
Category : Folk literature
ISBN : UVA:X001014598

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African Oral Literature for Schools by Jane Nandwa Pdf

Author : Graham Furniss,Liz Gunner
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 300 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2008-12-11
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0521087945

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Power, Marginality and African Oral Literature by Graham Furniss,Liz Gunner Pdf

African oral literature, like other forms of popular culture, is not merely a form of entertainment but a medium for commenting on contemporary social and political events. It can also be a significant agent of change capable of directing, provoking, preventing, overturning, and recasting social reality. The contributors to this collection are anthropologists, linguists, historians, and ethnomusicologists, who present fresh material on oral literature to paint a lively picture of current real life situations in Africa.

Author : Ce, Chin,Smith, Charles
Publisher : Handel Books
Page : 194 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2015-09-04
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9789783603592

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Oral Tradition in African Literature by Ce, Chin,Smith, Charles Pdf

This study of oral tradition in African literature is borne from the awareness that African verbal arts still survive in works of discerning writers and in the conscious exploration of its tropes, perspectives, philosophy and consciousness, its complementary realism, and ontology, for the delineation of authentic African response to memory, history and other possible comparisons with modern existence such as witnessed in recent developments of the African novel. In this series we have strived to adopt innovative and multilayered perspectives on orality or indigeneity and its manifestations on contemporary African and new literatures. These studies use multi-faceted theories of orality which discuss and deconstruct notions of history, truth-claims and identity-making, not excluding gender and genealogy (cultural and biological) studies in African contexts.

Author : Ruth H. Finnegan
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 586 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 1988
Category : African literature
ISBN : UCAL:B4931140

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Oral Literature in Africa by Ruth H. Finnegan Pdf

This book is based only on the more obvious sources and is intended as an introduction, not as a comprehensive account. Only some examples are given from a huge field and experts in particular areas will be able to point to exceptions and omissions. Some of the conclusions too may turn out to be controversial; indeed the author hopes to stimulate further publications and study. On each chapter and each section more research could take the subject much further. But in spite of these limitations, the general purpose of the book will be fulfilled to show that African oral literature is a subject worthy of study and interest, and to provoke further research in this fascinating but too often neglected field.

Author : Mark Turin,Claire Wheeler,Eleanor Wilkinson
Publisher : Open Book Publishers
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2013
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781909254305

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Oral Literature in the Digital Age by Mark Turin,Claire Wheeler,Eleanor Wilkinson Pdf

Thanks to ever-greater digital connectivity, interest in oral traditions has grown beyond that of researcher and research subject to include a widening pool of global users. When new publics consume, manipulate and connect with field recordings and digital cultural archives, their involvement raises important practical and ethical questions. This volume explores the political repercussions of studying marginalised languages; the role of online tools in ensuring responsible access to sensitive cultural materials; and ways of ensuring that when digital documents are created, they are not fossilised as a consequence of being archived. Fieldwork reports by linguists and anthropologists in three continents provide concrete examples of overcoming barriers -- ethical, practical and conceptual -- in digital documentation projects. Oral Literature In The Digital Age is an essential guide and handbook for ethnographers, field linguists, community activists, curators, archivists, librarians, and all who connect with indigenous communities in order to document and preserve oral traditions.

Author : Bayo Ogunjimi,Abdul Rasheed Na'allah,Abdul Rasheed Naʼallah
Publisher : Africa World Press
Page : 282 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2005
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 1592211518

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Introduction to African Oral Literature and Performance by Bayo Ogunjimi,Abdul Rasheed Na'allah,Abdul Rasheed Naʼallah Pdf

Rev. ed. of: Introduction to African oral literature. c1991.

Author : John William Johnson,Thomas Albert Hale,Thomas A. Hale,Stephen Paterson Belcher
Publisher : Indiana University Press
Page : 360 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 1997-04-22
Category : History
ISBN : 0253211107

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Oral Epics from Africa by John William Johnson,Thomas Albert Hale,Thomas A. Hale,Stephen Paterson Belcher Pdf

It seems incredible that heretofore there has not been an introductory anthology of African epics presented in English. Western literary culture has long emphasized the heritage of such well-known epics as the Iliad, the Odyssey, and Aeneid. But it is only recently that scholars have turned their attention toward capturing the rich oral tradition that is still alive in Africa. The twenty-five excerpts in this volume have been selected and introduced so as to offer English-speaking readers a broad sample of the extensive epic traditions in Africa. The general introduction and the background on each epic will enable readers to understand the context of each epic and will also provide leads for further inquiry.

Author : Mubina Hassanali Kirmani,Sanaullah Kirmani
Publisher : East African Publishers
Page : 144 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2002
Category : History
ISBN : 9966250859

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Oral Literature of the Asians in East Africa by Mubina Hassanali Kirmani,Sanaullah Kirmani Pdf

A further new title in this series on East African oral literature, considering East African-Indian genres of oral literature and cultures, which developed as people from India/Asia migrated to East Africa. The authors discuss how these literatures have been a source of creativity and renewal; and how they give expression to the values, perceptions and aspirations of cultures. The book is organised into sections on the socio-cultural background and historical origins of the literatures; patterns of migration and settlement in East Africa; styles in Indian literature as preserved in East Africa, common symbols, images and figures of speech; the role of the artist in literary production; and performance of oral literature. The authors further provide and discuss narratives from many genres: e.g. myths, legends, animal tales, moral stories; tales of wisdom and wit; riddles, proverbs and songs. Many passages appear in the original languages, transcribed from primary sources - in particular Gujerati; also Sindhi, Punjabi, Cutchi, Hindi, Kondani - as well as in English translation.

Author : Jan M. Vansina
Publisher : Univ of Wisconsin Press
Page : 273 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 1985-09-06
Category : History
ISBN : 9780299102135

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Oral Tradition as History by Jan M. Vansina Pdf

Jan Vansina’s 1961 book, Oral Tradition, was hailed internationally as a pioneering work in the field of ethno-history. Originally published in French, it was translated into English, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, and Hungarian. Reviewers were unanimous in their praise of Vansina’s success in subjecting oral traditions to intense functional analysis. Now, Vansina—with the benefit of two decades of additional thought and research—has revised his original work substantially, completely rewriting some sections and adding much new material. The result is an essentially new work, indispensable to all students and scholars of history, anthropology, folklore, and ethno-history who are concerned with the transmission and potential uses of oral material. “Those embarking on the challenging adventure of historical fieldwork with an oral community will find the book a valuable companion, filled with good practical advice. Those who already have collected bodies of oral material, or who strive to interpret and analyze that collected by others, will be forced to subject their own methodological approaches to a critical reexamination in the light of Vansina’s thoughtful and provocative insights. . . . For the second time in a quarter of a century, we are profoundly in the debt of Jan Vansina.”—Research in African Literatures “Oral Traditions as History is an essential addition to the basic literature of African history.”—American Historical Review

Author : Peter Leman
Publisher : Liverpool University Press
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2020-04-18
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781789625202

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Singing the Law by Peter Leman Pdf

Singing the Law is about the legal lives and afterlives of oral cultures in East Africa, particularly as they appear within the pages of written literatures during the colonial and postcolonial periods. In examining these cultures, this book begins with an analysis of the cultural narratives of time and modernity that formed the foundations of British colonial law. Recognizing the contradictory nature of these narratives (i.e., both promoting and retreating from the Euro-centric ideal of temporal progress) enables us to make sense of the many representations of and experiments with non-linear, open-ended, and otherwise experimental temporalities that we find in works of East African literature that take colonial law as a subject or point of critique. Many of these works, furthermore, consciously appropriate orature as an expressive form with legal authority. This affords them the capacity to challenge the narrative foundations of colonial law and its postcolonial residues and offer alternative models of temporality and modernity that give rise, in turn, to alternative forms of legality. East Africa’s “oral jurisprudence” ultimately has implications not only for our understanding of law and literature in colonial and postcolonial contexts, but more broadly for our understanding of how the global south has shaped modern law as we know and experience it today.