The World and the Word: Tales and Observations from the Xhosa Oral TraditionA master storyteller of the Xhosa people of South Africa, Nongenile Masithathu Zenani gives us an unprecedented view of an oral society from within. Twenty-four of her complex and beautiful tales about birth, puberty, marriage, and work, as told to the renowned collector of African oral tradition, Harold Scheub, are gathered here. Accompanying the stories are Zenani’s detailed commentaries and analyses and Scheub’s striking photographs of her in performance. The combination of these historical and cultural observations with a richly symbolic collection of tales from a single traditional storyteller make The World and the Word a remarkable document. |
From inside the book
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... images to limn the present , and fantasy images to evoke and embody the essence of the past . These latter , the ancient , fan- tastic images , are the culture's heritage and the storyteller's bounty : they contain the emotional history ...
... images have developed unique meanings , common to many audiences , thereby becoming cultur- ally significant . These images are therefore steadily retained in the art tradition over the generations because they continue to represent key ...
... image and not a word rote - memorized . Such images have no place in time until they are objectified in a perfor- mance , placed in a linear continuum before an audience . Each repetition contains new information . The artist fashions a ...
Contents
The Art of the Storyteller | 7 |
Masithathu Zenani on Storytelling | 19 |
Tales | 27 |
Copyright | |
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