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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Sarraounia, an epic?
Author:Tandina, OusmaneISNI
Year:1993
Periodical:Research in African Literatures
Volume:24
Issue:2
Pages:23-32
Language:English
Geographic term:Niger
Subjects:literature
epics (form)
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3819883
Abstract:In the fifteen years following the appearance of D.T. Niane's 'Soundjata' in 1960, other fully constituted oral epics were recorded, transcribed and translated. Themes drawn from traditional African sources inspired a variety of works that did not correspond to precise oral analogues. Such texts are more like novels than oral epics in the sense that they lack the musicality, the poetry, and the warmth of the human voice so characteristic of the latter. What should one call these works - historical novels, dramas or epics? The author posits a response to this question by examining the epic elements in one of the most recent of these works, 'Sarraounia, ou 'le drame d'une reine magicienne'' (1980), by Abdoulaye Mamani. All the principal traits of the epic are present in Mamani's text: deeds of valour, a heroic sense of honour, a respect for the conventions of the period. But Mamani also departs from several traditional rules of the epic genre. Thus Sarraounia does not exercise an important influence over the course of events and fantastic elements play a minor role in the narrative. The author concludes that Mamani has consciously broken with tradition and discovered his own way of being original. He has written a magnificent example of literary art: an epic on the human scale. Bibliogr.
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