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)

Finnegan, Ruth H

Literature & Fiction

Clarendon P.

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

"Short time to stay": Comments on time, literature, and oral performance (Hans Wolff memorial lecture)

African Studies Program, Indiana University

NOW AVAILABLE AS AN EPUB VERSION (Jan 1st 2023) DEDICATIONTo the taxi drivers, and all those other immigrants, who have enriched our knowledge and our culture and day by day continue to do so... Discover what the The Ten Commandments of St Fiacre and the 10 Commandments of Road Safety are all about. Discover the lives of taxi drivers: hidden in plain sight, here, there, and everywhere - sometimes, invisible! Learn the history that created taxis, Hackney carriages and all. Consider their urban setting with case studies and interviews from Milton Keynes. And, taxi drivers: who are they, where are they from, how did they get here? Trials, traumas and triumphs. What is 'The job' what is 'The Knowledge'. What's new? All this, only on Uber! Earnings... and much more.This book uncovers the hidden depths below simply urban living and then leads the reader into further inspiring knowledge about the 'real me' behind the taxi driver. Who would believe that an accurate, meticulous account of a down-to-earth subject like taxi drivers in Milton Keynes would lead into the deeper fathoms of the human soul and of what lies beyond.&#8203; Your view of the familiar streets will be transformed!A book from Ruth's Trilogy: Tales of the City, The Hidden Musicians and The Hidden Lives of Taxi Drivers - with their focus on the City of Milton Keynes

The Hidden Lives of Taxi Drivers: A question of knowledge (Ethnographic Trilogy)

Essays & Correspondence

callender press

Birds and Humans: who are we? (Callender Nature)

Politics & Social Sciences

Anthropology

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Books by Finnegan, Ruth H