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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Beyond Frontiers: A Review of Analytical Paradigms in Folklore Studies
Author:Muana, Patrick Kagbeni
Year:1998
Periodical:Journal of African Cultural Studies
Volume:11
Issue:1
Period:June
Pages:39-58
Language:English
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:oral literature
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Bibliography/Research
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13696819808717825
Abstract:In discussing some of the most important issues involved in the representation and interpretation of African verbal art by Africanists and some African scholars, the author clarifies the main analytical paradigms and scholarly practices by discussing them as theoretical constructs. He argues that the nature of folklore discourse should be examined in the light of a more agent-centred approach that recognizes intertextuality as a valuable characterizing dimension of the production and reception of discourse. Rejecting the status of 'text' and 'context' as reified constructs, the author stresses that the researcher should be alive to contextualization cues which not only identify the status and nature of discourse but also index ongoing negotiations among the interactants in an aesthetic transaction. The call to provide local, culturally specific definitions of genre must be supplemented with a description of the behaviour of genre. The author also rejects definitions of 'tradition' that refer back to 'exotic pastness'. He submits that scholars can augment the quality of research on verbal art from Africa by paying greater attention to the real nature of analytical paradigms. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum.
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