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.

Oral Literature in Africa (Oxford Library of African Literature)

Literature & Fiction

Finnegan, Ruth

History & Criticism

Oxford University Press

With her 1976 book Oral Literature in Africa, Ruth Finnegan almost single-handedly created the field of ethnography of language. Now, Finnegan has gathered and updated a selection of her best work on oral literature, performance, and the creative use of language in Africa, along with several new essays that broaden and extend her ideas.The Oral and Beyond looks simultaneously backwards and forwards, reviewing and critiquing the achievements of scholarship on African oral literature, revisiting issues of perennial contention, and highlighting some of the most interesting new ideas and approaches in the field. Exploring such fundamental questions as how texts and textuality relate to performance, how ideology inflects language, and how traditional forms adapt to modern media and popular culture, Finnegan essentially crafts an intellectual history of her field. At the same time, she propels the ethnography of language forward, bringing the techniques and knowledge developed through her fieldwork in Africa to bear on issues that transcend African studies and reach into the larger world of anthropology and beyond.

The Oral and Beyond: Doing Things with Words in Africa

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

University of Chicago Press

With her 1976 book Oral Literature in Africa, Ruth Finnegan almost single-handedly created the field of ethnography of language. Now, Finnegan has gathered and updated a selection of her best work on oral literature, performance, and the creative use of language in Africa, along with several new essays that broaden and extend her ideas. The Oral and Beyond looks simultaneously backwards and forwards, reviewing and critiquing the achievements of scholarship on African oral literature, revisiting issues of perennial contention, and highlighting some of the most interesting new ideas and approaches in the field. Exploring such fundamental questions as how texts and textuality relate to performance, how ideology inflects language, and how traditional forms adapt to modern media and popular culture, Finnegan essentially crafts an intellectual history of her field. At the same time, she propels the ethnography of language forward, bringing the techniques and knowledge developed through her fieldwork in Africa to bear on issues that transcend African studies and reach into the larger world of anthropology and beyond.

The doyen multi-award anthropologist Ruth Finnegan returns by popular demand, this time to answer common questions about the general issues around the technology co=of communication and the significance of orality and literacy. Are we bound by technology? Do individuals and human cultures have any say in the matter? What IS communication anyway and how does it,can it, get passed on through the ages?A unique, authoritative and readable account on an absolutely fascinating area. Riveting. Not to be missed.Read more in Ruth's fabulous series SWHC series THE SECRET WAYS OF HUMAN COMMUNICATING, now available in the scintillating Callender Press collection.

Literacy and orality Technological determinists large and small

History

lulu.com

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 and the Pacific. The book employs a wide comparative perspective, to consider oral poetry from Africa, Asia, and Oceania as well as Europe and America. The results of Finnegan's vast research suggest fresh approaches to many current controversies: the nature of oral tradition and oral composition; the notion of a special oral style; possible connections between types of poetry and types of society; the differences between oral and written communication; and the role of poets in nonliterature societies. The reissue 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. Finnegan provides a new foreword relating the text to these recent developments.

Oral Poetry: Its Nature, Significance and Social Context

Indiana University Press

Oral literature, oral tradition, verbal folklore, folk literature, oral performance, popular culture - these areas of human communication and performance are now attracting increasing attention from social anthropologists. Designed as a guide both to the practicalities of fieldwork and to the range of methods by which oral texts and performance can be observed, collected or analysed, "Oral Traditions and the Verbal Arts" takes the reader through all the stages of preparing for, conducting, and following up research. Particular emphasis is laid on the recent interdisciplinary work on performance, on the "processes" involved in the creation and analysis of texts, and on related ethical issues. The book is distinctive in its comparative perspective, with examples taken from both historical and modern cultures, ranging from African and South Pacific forms to those from contemporary Europe. Theoretical controversies about approach and terminology are clarified, and a full and up-to-date bibliography is included. This book should be of interest to students and teachers of anthropology, cultural studies, folklore, oral literature, general readers.

Oral Traditions and the Verbal Arts: A Guide to Research Practices (Asa Research Methods in Social Anthropology)

Routledge

Oral Traditions and the Verbal Arts: A Guide to Research Practices (The ASA Research Methods)

Provides up-to-date guidance on how to approach the study of oral forms and their performances, examining both the practicalities of fieldwork and the methods by which oral texts and performances can be observed, collected and analysed.

In Communicating, the anthropologist Ruth Finnegan considers the many and varied modes through which we humans communicate and the multisensory resources we draw on.The book uncovers the amazing array of sounds, sights, smells, gestures, looks, movements, touches and material objects which humans use so creatively to interconnect both nearby and across space and time - resources consistently underestimated in those western ideologies that prioritise 'rationality' and referential language.

Communicating: The Multiple Modes of Human Interconnection

In Communicating, the anthropologist Ruth Finnegan considers the many and varied modes through which we humans communicate and the multisensory resources we draw on. The book uncovers the amazing array of sounds, sights, smells, gestures, looks, movements, touches and material objects which humans use so creatively to interconnect both nearby and across space and time - resources consistently underestimated in those western ideologies that prioritise 'rationality' and referential language.

Communicating: The Multiple Modes of Human Communication

Many accounts of human communication suggest that we are limited to communicating through words, visual images, the mass media and by digital means. This perspective underestimates the multisensory qualities of much of our human interconnecting and the multiple sounds, touches, sights and material objects which humans use so creatively to interconnect both nearby and across space and time. Ruth Finnegan brings together research from linguistic and sensory anthropology, alternative approaches to 'material culture' and 'the body', non-verbal communication, cultural studies, computer-mediated communication, and illuminating work on animal communication. Examples from both western and non-western cultures together with plentiful illustrations enrich and deepen the analysis.  The book uncovers the amazing array of sounds, sights, smells, gestures, looks, movements, touches and material objects which humans use so creatively to interconnect both nearby and across space and time - resources consistently underestimated in those western ideologies that prioritise 'rationality' and referential language.  Focussing on embodied and material processes, and on practice rather than text, this comparative analysis challenges the underlying cognitive and word-centred model common to many approaches to communication. The second edition of Communicating includes a new introduction, updates to take account of recent work, an additional chapter covering ethereal non-verbal non-bodily communicating such as telepathy and dreams, fresh illustrations, a new conclusion and updated bibliography. This authoritative but accessible book is an essential transdisciplinary overview for researchers and advanced students in language and communication, anthropology and cultural studies.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Finnegan, Ruth. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Finnegan, Ruth

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Finnegan, Ruth. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Oral Literature in Africa (Oxford Library of African Literature)

The Oral and Beyond: Doing Things with Words in Africa

The Oral and Beyond: Doing Things with Words in Africa

Literacy and orality Technological determinists large and small

Oral Poetry: Its Nature, Significance and Social Context

Oral Traditions and the Verbal Arts: A Guide to Research Practices (Asa Research Methods in Social Anthropology)

Oral Traditions and the Verbal Arts: A Guide to Research Practices (The ASA Research Methods)

Communicating: The Multiple Modes of Human Interconnection

Communicating: The Multiple Modes of Human Interconnection

Communicating: The Multiple Modes of Human Communication