The Palgrave Handbook of African Oral Traditions and Folklore

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.

Offers a complete, deep, and innovative analysis of oral traditions and folklore in Africa and among Africans in the diaspora Asses the current and historical dynamics between oral traditions and folklore, illustrating how the nature of oral transmission of cultural heritage and folklore is simultaneously vital to the livelihood of tradition while also at the heart of the issues that surround their diminished role in an increasingly globalized society Creates a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and well-researched collection of essays covering different aspects of African oral traditions and folklore Provides fresh insights into new discourses and intellectual development in African oral traditions and folklore occasioned by new directions in development studies, globalization and some other critical issues raised by the diaspora Centers theoretical debates on such topics as the collective or communal character of oral cultures, the relationship between tradition and individual talent, and the unique circumstances required for traditions to emerge Establishes a reference for comparative analysis and ongoing debates in Africanist discourse on gender, class, ethnicity, language, and cultural nationalism

Auteur

Editors:

Akintunde Akinyemi is Professor and Chair in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Florida, USA.

Toyin Falola is the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and a Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, USA.

Partial Listing of Contributors: Julius Adekunle, Monmouth University

Simeon Ibigbolade Aderibigbe, University of Georgia at Athens, USA

Chiji Akoma, Villanova University, USA

Adetayo Alabi, University of Mississippi, USA

Joyce Ashuntantang, University of Hartford, USA

Karin Barber, University of Birmingham, UK

Ragi Bashonga, Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa

Robert Cancel, University of California, San Diego, USA Raphael d'Abdon, University of South Africa

Ernest N. Emenyonu, University of Michigan-Flint, USA

Olawole Famule, University of Wisconsin at Superior, USA

Artisia Green, College of William and Mary, USA

Marame Gueye, East Carolina University, USA

Lee Haring, Brooklyn College, CUNY, USA

Kathryn Jones, Swansea University, UK

Kasongo M. Kapanga, University of Richmond, USA Russell H. Kaschula, Rhodes University, South Africa

Cécile Leguy, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3, France

Joseph McLaren, Hofstra University, USA

Patricia Beatrice Mireku-Gyimah, University of Mines and Technology, Ghana

Mustafa Kemal Mirzeler, Western Michigan University, USA Besi Brillian Muhonja, James Madison University, USA

Juliana Makuchi Nfah-Abbenyi, North Carolina State University, USA

Jacomien van Niekerk, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Felicia Ohwovoriole, University of Lagos, Nigeria

Rose Opondo, Moi University, Kenya

Félix Ayoh'Omidire, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria

Gail Presbey, University of Detroit Mercy, USA

Lesibana Rafapa, University of South Africa Relfiwe M. Ramagoshi, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Angela M. Farr Schiller, Kennesaw State University, USA

Enongene Mirabeau Sone, Walter Sisulu University, Cameroon

Mobolanle Sotunsa, Babcock University, Nigeria

Rémi Armand Tchokothe, University of Bayreuth, Germany

Antoinette Tidjani Alaou, Niamey University, Niger

Karim Traoré, University of Georgia, USA

Hanétha Vété-Congolo, Bowdoin College, USA Hein Willemse, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Felicity Wood, University of Fort Hare, South Africa

Texte du rabat

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.

Contenu
Chapter 1. Introduction: Perspectives on African Oral Traditions and Folklore.- Part I. Contexts and Practicalities.- Chapter 2. Creativity and Performance in Oral Poetry.- Chapter 3. Concept and Components of Performance.- Chapter 4. The Role of the Audience in Oral Performance.- Chapter 5. Orality, History, and Historical Reconstruction.- Chapter 6. Insights from Festivals and Carnivals.- Chapter 7. Fieldwork and Data Collection.- Chapter 8. Documenting Oral Genres.- Chapter 9. Retrospect and Prospects of Oral Tradition and Folklore.- Part II. Themes, Tropes and Types. Chapter 10. Epic Tradition.- Chapter 11. Divination and Divinatory Systems.- Chapter 12. Myth and Mythology.- Chapter 13. The Dirge.- Chapter 14. Dreams within the Context of the Basotho Culture.- Chapter 15. Drum Language and Literature.- Chapter 16. Oratory and Rhetoric: Praise Poetry.- Chapter 17. Proverbs, Naming, and other Forms of Veiled Speech.- Chapter 18. Oral Poetry: Monyoncho's Orature and AbaGusii Culture of Non-violence.- Chapter 19. Ifá: A Womanist Deconstruction of Gender Politics.- Chapter 20. A Repertoire of Bukusu Nonverbal Communicative System: Some Gender Differences, etc.