Oral Literature: What This Section Covers
A map of the Yoruba oral genres treated in this section, what each file holds, and where the neighbouring sections carry the material this one does not duplicate.
introhigh·
Loading…
A map of the Yoruba oral genres treated in this section, what each file holds, and where the neighbouring sections carry the material this one does not duplicate.
The Yorùbá wey dem quote, the proverbs, oríkì, ẹsẹ Ifá, word list headwords, Odù names and citations dey exactly as the corpus record dem, for every language.
Yoruba verbal art no be just one single thing. Na group of different named genres wey each get im own performers, im own occasion, im own vocal manner, and im own rules about wetin person fit talk and who get right to talk am. Hunter wey dey chant ìjálá for festival and bride wey dey chant ẹkún ìyàwó for the night wey she dey leave im papa house dey do things wey different for formal way, and Yoruba classification recognise the difference clearly. This section dey describe that system and present the texts.
The main argument for this section, wey dem argue for the first file and assume for everywhere after am, na say wetin take separate these genres na mainly how dem take use voice do am instead of wetin dem dey talk about. The same material fit appear inside ìjálá and inside ẹ̀sà; wetin dey make performance be one or the other na the mode of vocalisation .
01. The genre system. How dem take classify Yoruba oral genres, who dey perform each, on which occasion, with which vocal manner, and why the European category "oral literature" no fit am complete. Karin Barber argument about text, performance and audience.
02. Ìjálá. The hunters chant, how e connect to Ògún, the ìjálá artist, contest performance.
03. Ìwì and ẹ̀sà egúngún. Masquerade poetry, the ancestral voice, vocal disguise.
04. Rárà. The chanted praise genre and the rárà singer.
05. Ẹkún ìyàwó. The bride lament, the three-part structure wey e get, and the social situation wey dey produce am.
06. Ìrèmọ̀jé. Hunters funeral poetry and Bade Ajuwon work on top am.
07. Ọfọ̀ and àyájọ́. Incantation and the verbal theory wey dey inside am: naming, tone, etymological play. Dem describe and analyse am as genre, dem no supply am as manual.
08. Àlọ́. Folktales and riddles, the Ìjàpá cycle, narrative convention, the call-and-response opening.
09. Orin. Song across work, play, ritual, lullaby, children games and satire.
10. Ọwe in performance. How proverbs dey behave inside other genres.
11. Drum poetry. How the dùndún dey reproduce speech, and drummed text beside the spoken equivalent.
12. Egúngún, Gẹ̀lẹ̀dẹ́ and Ẹfẹ̀ song texts. The satirical and social-control function of Ẹfẹ̀ night especially.
13. The performers. Training, gender, patronage, payment, and the named artists wey scholarship document.
14. Continuity into the present. Juju, fuji, Afrobeats, film and theatre, and wetin dey lost and wetin dem dey record.
This section hold the genre system and the performance dimension. E no dey duplicate:
The main proverb collection dey inside yoruba-owe-proverbs inside 02-language, wey get pass forty ọwe with full three-layer treatment. File 10 here treat only how proverbs dey behave inside performance.
The main oríkì treatment dey inside yoruba-oriki inside 02-language, wey cover the kinds of oríkì, oríkì as historical evidence, and the Awe and Barber scholarship. Oríkì dey show constantly for this section because na dem be the raw material for most other genres, but the genre-level account dey there.
Ẹsẹ Ifá, the verses of the Ifá corpus, dey inside 05-ifa. Ifá poetry na oral genre and e belong to any complete list, but e get im own section because the corpus, the divination procedure and the training no fit separate from the verses.
Instruments and music history dey inside 07-arts, specifically yoruba-drum-language for the dùndún and bàtá families and how drum speech dey work, and the popular music lineage file from sákárà reach Afrobeats. File 11 here treat drummed text as literature; the organology dey there. File 14 treat the lyric continuity; the musical history dey there.
Egúngún and Gẹ̀lẹ̀dẹ́ as institutions dey inside 06-orisa. File 03 and 12 here treat their verbal art.
Every Yoruba text for this section dey presented inside the three layers wey this corpus require: original with diacritics, literal gloss, idiomatic English wey name the translator, and notes on wetin the translation lose. Where published source print the original without complete tone marking, dem talk am clearly instead of to just correct am secretly, because Yoruba text wey no get diacritics dey ambiguous and to invent tone marks go mean to invent reading.
Where the best texts for genre exist only inside printed scholarship wey this compiler no fit verify page by page, the file talk am and send the reader go the book. Na file 12 that kind thing happen pass. To present re-translation or paraphrase as if na transcription go break the translation rule, and gap wey dem state clearly dey more useful pass confident fabrication.
How Yoruba verbal art is classified into named genres by vocal manner rather than subject, who performs each and on what occasion, and why the European category "oral literature" fits the material imperfectly.
What oríkì are, the different kinds, who performs them and why, and how they carry history that written records do not.
What Yorùbá proverbs do in speech and in law, and a worked collection of more than forty proverbs in original, literal gloss, and idiomatic English.
The hunters' chant associated with Ògún, its vocal manner, the ìjálá artist and how he is judged, the contest setting, and what the chant does as self-portrait and as praise of animals.
The secular chanting genre of praise, who the rárà singer is and how the performance is shaped by the audience paying for it, and the accuracy that makes rárà more than flattery.
The chant a Yoruba bride performs in the days before she leaves her father's house, its three-part structure, the social situation that produces it, and what she actually says about the marriage ahead of her.