Power, Marginality and African Oral Literature [Hardcover]

A collection of essays on African oral literature and its place in popular culture.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.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.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.1. Introduction: power, marginality and oral literature Graham Furniss and Liz Gunner; Part I. Orality and the Power of the State: 2. Oral art and contemporary cultural nationalism Penina Mlama; 3. The letter and the law: the politics of orality and literacy in the chiefdoms of the northern Transvaal Isabel Hofmeyr; 4. A king is not above insultlÃY