Publications

Publication details [#18406]

Seitel, Peter. 1999. The Powers of Genre: Interpreting Haya Oral Literature. (Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics 22). Oxford University Press. x + 248 pp.
Publication type
Book – monograph
Publication language
English
Keywords
Language as a subject
ISBN
019511700X

Annotation

The Powers of Genre describes a method for interpreting oral literature that depends upon and facilitates dialogue between insiders and outsiders to a tradition. Seitel illustrates this method with lively examples from Haya proverbs, folktales, and heroic verse. He then focuses on a single epic ballad to demonstrate, among other things, why stanzas need not rhyme, and how significance needs time in oral poetry and narrative. Making a controversial claim that an heroic age, similar to that of Ancient Greece, existed in Sub-Saharan Africa, this work will intrigue anyone who works in oral literature and narrative.

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