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African Oral Literature: An Introduction guides us from the very beginnings of African oral traditions, through the whole range of theories and contexts, and right up to the modern technological age.
This comprehensive and engaging textbook covers the key concepts and methodologies behind the history, formation, delivery, and performance of oral literature. Folktales, proverbs, rhetoric, jokes, poetry, and theatre are explored in turn, before looking at compositional techniques, artistry, education, characterisation, and cosmology. The final part of the book investigates the interplay between oral traditions and technology such as social media in the twenty-first century. Drawing on traditional African pedagogy, the book weaves in African metaphors, rhetorical styles and performance modes, aiming for readers to imbibe African orality rhetoric page by page.
With key questions, exercises and further reading helping to guide readers at the end of each chapter, this book is the perfect introduction to the study of African oral literature.
List of contents
Preface 1. Introduction 2. Oral Narratives 3. Oral Poetry 4. Oral Dramatic Performance 5. Compositional Narrative Techniques 6. Oral Apprenticeships 7. Orality and Informal Education 8. Narrative Didacticism 9. Poetry of Engagement 10. African Drama of Total Theatre 11. Oral Literary Characters 12. African Cosmology and Oral Traditions 13. Oral Traditions and Technology 14. African Oral Literature and the Social Media 15. African Oral Literature and Historical Essence 16. African Oral Literature in the Twenty First Century: Platform and Performativity 17. Oral Texts, Writing and Textualities 18. Conclusion:
About the author
Abdul-Rasheed Na'Allah was formerly Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive, Professor of English, Comparative Oral Poetics and Performance, University of Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria. He's the author of
African Discourse in Islam, Oral Traditions, and Performance (Routeldge, 2010);
Yoruba Oral Tradition in Islamic Nigeria (Routledge, 2020), among others.
