Oral Literature in Africa (original) (raw)

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. 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, which are freely accessible here. The book is available as a free pdf and ebook 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 the World Oral Literature Series published in conjunction with the World Oral Literature Project.

This book is included in DOAB.

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A campaign has succeeded to unglue Oral Literature in Africa!

The rights holder, Open Book Publishers , has agreed to release Oral Literature in Africa to the world as a Creative Commons licensed ebook (CC BY) thanks to the efforts of ungluers like you.

Campaign details: the fine print

If this campaign is successful, the new edition of Oral Literature in Africa will be launched at The World Oral Literature Project Workshop in Cambridge, England on 29-30 June 2012. The complete original text, along with a new introduction and images, will be an Unglued Ebook available to readers everywhere -- along with access to new digital archive materials of audio and visual clips from Ruth Finnegan's research -- if together we raise $7500.00 by June 21, 2012, 11:59 p.m.