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. |
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... puberty ritual . It is the oral tradition's means of evoking stream of consciousness . The disputatiousness of the two sisters makes up the primary pattern in the early part of the story , the performer emphasizing the opposition be ...
... puberty and beyond , to his marriage . Rites of passage always emphasize crises in people's lives , as they move ... puberty ritual . The old man reveals this when he derides the boys , insisting that chasing the birds is an act of ...
... puberty ritual , at the urging of his mother . He has demonstrated his readiness to take on an adult role in his society . Apart from the immersion in the complexities of kinship relations , the story is a realistic version of the puberty ...
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
PrologueOrigins | 9 |
Masithathu Zenani on Storytelling | 19 |
Copyright | |
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