The Powers of Genre: Interpreting Haya Oral Literature

By Peter Seitel

The Powers of Genre describes a method for interpreting oral literature that depends upon and facilitates dialogue between insiders and outsiders to a tradition. Seitel illustrates this method with lively examples from Haya proverbs, folktales, and heroic verse. He then focuses on a single epic ballad to demonstrate, among other things, why stanzas need not rhyme, and how significance needs time in oral poetry and narrative. Making a controversial claim that an heroic age, similar to that of Ancient Greece, existed in Sub-Saharan Africa, this work will intrigue anyone who works in oral literature and narrative.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 019511700X
• ISBN13: 9780195117004
• Release Date: March 1999
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.8" x 8.8"