Oral Literature in Africa - cover image

Book Series

Copyright

Ruth Finnegan

Published On

2012-09-17

ISBN

Paperback978-1-906924-70-6
Hardback978-1-906924-71-3
PDF978-1-906924-72-0
HTML978-1-80064-452-6
EPUB978-1-906924-73-7
MOBI978-1-906924-74-4

Language

  • English

Print Length

614 pages (xliv + 570 )

Dimensions

Paperback156 x 32 x 234 mm(6.14" x 1.24" x 9.21")
Hardback156 x 33 x 234 mm(6.14" x 1.31" x 9.21")

Weight

Paperback1879g (66.28oz)
Hardback2280g (80.42oz)

Media

Illustrations39
Tables1

OCLC Number

969711848

LCCN

2019467807

BIC

  • JHMC
  • HBTD
  • 1H

BISAC

  • SOC002010
  • LIT004010
  • DRA011000

LCC

  • PL8010

Keywords

  • Oral literature
  • African culture
  • Orality
  • Unglue.it
  • Storytelling
  • Limba
  • Sierra Leone

Oral Literature in Africa

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. Oral Literature in Africa has been accessed by hundreds of readers in over 60 different countries, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and numerous other African countries. The digital editions of this book are free to download thanks to the generous support of interested readers and organisations, who made donations using the crowd-funding website Unglue.it. Oral Literature in Africa is part of our World Oral Literature Series in conjunction with the World Oral Literature Project.

Reviews

The most significant development in this new edition is its accessibility, for the book is now freely available online. [...] In these and other ways, Finnegan's study offers windows into new worlds while reminding readers who are returning to it of all that it encompasses and all that it has bestowed upon African oral literary studies. The book can now be read online, or downloaded as a free e-book or pdf. In its new form, the book is a gift given to us anew and, more importantly, given freely to the continent whence it came.

Felcitiy Wood

"Ruth Finnegan, Oral Literature in Africa". Journal of Southern African Studies (0305-7070), vol. 40, no. 1, 2014. doi:10.1080/03057070.2014.877663

Full Review

Additional Resources

This volume is complemented by original recordings of stories and songs from the Limba country (Sierra Leone), collected by Finnegan during her fieldwork in the late 1960s.


[website]Original recordings of stories and songs from the Limba country

These recordings are hosted by the World Oral Literature Project

Contents

Poetry and Patronage

(pp. 83–110)
  • Ruth Finnegan

Panegyric

(pp. 111–143)
  • Ruth Finnegan

Elegiac Poetry

(pp. 145–163)
  • Ruth Finnegan

Religious Poetry

(pp. 165–200)
  • Ruth Finnegan

Lyric

(pp. 235–263)
  • Ruth Finnegan
  • Ruth Finnegan
  • Ruth Finnegan
  • Ruth Finnegan
  • Ruth Finnegan

Proverbs

(pp. 379–411)
  • Ruth Finnegan

Riddles

(pp. 413–429)
  • Ruth Finnegan
  • Ruth Finnegan

Drama

(pp. 485–501)
  • Ruth Finnegan

Conclusion

(pp. 503–506)
  • Ruth Finnegan

Contributors

Ruth Finnegan

(author)
Fellow at British Academy
Honorary Fellow of Somerville College at University of Oxford

Ruth Finnegan FBA OBE was born in 1933 in the beautiful fraught once-island city of Derry, Northern Ireland, and brought up there, together with several magical years during the war in Donegal. She had her education at the little Ballymore First School in County Donegal, Londonderry High School, Mount (Quaker) School York, then first class honours in Classics (Literae humaniores) and a doctorate in Anthropology at Oxford. This was followed by fieldwork and university teaching in Africa, principally Sierra Leone and Nigeria. She then joined the pioneering Open University as a founding member of the academic staff, where she spent the rest of her career apart from three years – and more fieldwork – at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, and is now, proudly, an Open University Emeritus Professor. She was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1996, and is also an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford.