Fritz H. Pointer, "African Oral Epic Poetry: Praising the Deeds of a Mythic Hero"
Fritz H. Pointer, "African Oral Epic Poetry: Praising the Deeds of a Mythic Hero"
Publisher: Edwin Mellen Pr | 2012 | ISBN: 0773440879 | English | PDF | 301 pages | 12.69 Mb
Publisher: Edwin Mellen Pr | 2012 | ISBN: 0773440879 | English | PDF | 301 pages | 12.69 Mb
Professor Pointer is the first person to offer an English translation of the Epic of Kambili, an African heroic myth. The book is careful to point out that this text deserves to be read by myth scholars and shows that the literary tradition of epic myth-telling extends to Africa through its oral folklore. The author argues that the story should be treated as an epic myth that was pieced together by different authors over several centuries, which may or may not have been the result of observing real events. It may have been an imaginative narrative representing cultural norms with verbal symbolism, thereby putting it in a different tradition to the European epics, while also showing similar conventions of genre.
"Pointer underscores the importance of declarating that the Greek epic tradition is only one of many. In several places in Africa and elsewhere, living epic traditions can be observed in their natural contexts." (Prof. Daniel P. Kunene University of Wisconsin-Madison)"
Fritz H. Pointer, "African Oral Epic Poetry: Praising the Deeds of a Mythic Hero"
