Author: Ruth Finnegan
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 153264504X
Size: 53.87 MB
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This classic study is an introduction to “oral poetry,” a broad subject which Ruth Finnegan interprets as ranging from American folksongs, Eskimo lyrics, and modern popular songs to medieval oral literature, the heroic poems of Homer, and recent epic compositions in Asia or the Pacific. The book employs a broad comparative perspective and considers oral poetry from Africa, Asia, and Oceania as well as Europe and America. The results of Finnegan’s vast research illuminate and suggest fresh conclusions to many current controversies: the nature of oral tradition and oral composition; the notion of a special oral style; possible connection between types of poetry and types of society; the differences between oral and written communication; and the role of poets in non-literate societies. Drawing on insights from anthropology and literary scholarship, Oral Poetry attempts to create a greater appreciation of the literary aspects of this fascinating form of poetry. Finnegan quotes extensively from a wide variety of sources, mainly in translation. The discussion is presented in non-technical language and will be of interest not only to sociologists and social anthropologists, but also to all those interested in comparative literature and in folk poetry from cultures around the world. The re-issue of this text, widely used in folklore, anthropology, and comparative literature courses, comes at an appropriate juncture in interdisciplinary scholarship, which is witnessing the breakdown of traditional disciplinary boundaries and an increase in the comparative study of oral poetry. For this volume Ruth Finnegan has provided a new foreword relating the text to more recent developments.
Language: en
Pages: 324
Pages: 324
This classic study is an introduction to “oral poetry,” a broad subject which Ruth Finnegan interprets as ranging from American folksongs, Eskimo lyrics, and modern popular songs to medieval oral literature, the heroic poems of Homer, and recent epic compositions in Asia or the Pacific. The book employs a broad
Language: en
Pages: 506
Pages: 506
This volume presents and analyses the work of four contemporary Saudi Bedouin poets, based on taped records, with special emphasis on this poetry's reflection of the tribal society's evolving self-image at a time of rapid social, economic, and political transformation.
Language: en
Pages: 303
Pages: 303
This book, first published in 1983, was the first detailed study of the Xhosa oral poetry tradition.
Language: en
Pages: 256
Pages: 256
Uses examples from Homer's Odyssey to contemporary urban America's slam poetry to explore the cultural contexts of this verbal artform, discussing the structure, principles, and social applications of the oral poem.
Language: en
Pages: 368
Pages: 368
This work presents the complete collection of oral poetry of a bedouin poet in Central Arabia transcribed and translated on the basis of taped recordings, an extensive glossary, and chapters on i.a. the Najdi tradition in poetry, linguistic features, and prosody.
Language: en
Pages: 274
Pages: 274
This book contains a major research into, and deep investigation of Basotho language oral poetry in Lesotho at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The classical form, the dithoko, which was inspired by tribal wars or battles fought by the Basotho, is explored fully, but the absence of wars, and
Language: en
Pages: 222
Pages: 222
In this 1976 volume, Geoffrey Kirk considers the nature of oral and epic poetry, and the meaning of an oral tradition.
Language: en
Pages: 366
Pages: 366
A yearbook sponsored by the British Comparative Literature Association asserting that comparative literary studies represent a major direction forwards.
Language: en
Pages: 406
Pages: 406
Language: en
Pages: 234
Pages: 234