Verbal Arts in Madagascar: Performance in Historical PerspectiveVerbal Arts in Madagascar combines a history of the encounter between Europeans and colonized people with a groundbreaking analysis of four types of Malagasy folklore: riddles, proverbs, hainteny (dialogic exchanges of traditional metaphors), and oratory. In this richly textured study, Lee Haring has collected several hundred witty, imaginative texts and translated them into English for the first time. Verbal Arts in Madagascar contains the first history of the collecting of folklore in Madagascar from 1820 to the present. Haring contends that when European investigators recorded this "native culture" they created a vision of "folklore" which served French domination by trivializing Malagasy reality. Now, through comparison and analysis of texts gathered during a century and a half by foreigners, Haring shows that the four types of folklore examined make use of a pervasive two-sided dialogic structure. Although Haring works from texts transcribed and published at least seventy years ago, his analysis always highlights the performance of folklore in actual social settings. By drawing upon the observations of collectors and upon information presented in chronicles, ethnographies, reports, and other historical documents, Haring successfully reconstructs the performances of the texts and the social context in which the performances took place. Verbal Arts in Madagascar pioneers an integrated approach to past folklore studies into contemporary theory. It will especially interest students and scholars in folklore, history, African studies, and anthropology. |
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Page 28
As mpikabary have assimilated their predecessors , so Rabearivelo absorbed
into himself the personalities of Baudelaire , Hugo , Rimbaud , Poe , Casanova ,
Mallarmé , and generations of Merina poetic reciters and singers . His
dependence ...
As mpikabary have assimilated their predecessors , so Rabearivelo absorbed
into himself the personalities of Baudelaire , Hugo , Rimbaud , Poe , Casanova ,
Mallarmé , and generations of Merina poetic reciters and singers . His
dependence ...
Page 102
In these ways , the hainteny , like other Malagasy genres , uses the style of poetic
language all over the African continent , and indeed all over the Indian Ocean .
Poets consider hainteny to be poetry . Flavien Ranaivo derives the name of the ...
In these ways , the hainteny , like other Malagasy genres , uses the style of poetic
language all over the African continent , and indeed all over the Indian Ocean .
Poets consider hainteny to be poetry . Flavien Ranaivo derives the name of the ...
Page 104
anthropologists to record folklore , the emphasis by folklorists on face - toface
communication , the interest of poets and ... poetry All over the world , poetic
features have been found where none had been seen before , and poetics have
been ...
anthropologists to record folklore , the emphasis by folklorists on face - toface
communication , the interest of poets and ... poetry All over the world , poetic
features have been found where none had been seen before , and poetics have
been ...
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Contents
Question and Answer | 34 |
Dialogue in Monologue | 63 |
The Merina Hainteny | 98 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
acceptance African ancestors answer assert audience authority balance called choice collected connection contest continues conversation created culture Dahle dead death debate deliverer dialect dialogue Domenichini-Ramiaramanana European example expressive fixed folklore folklorists followed formal French funeral genre give hainteny hianao Houlder importance interaction island kabary kind king language linguistic living Madagascar Malagasy marriage means Merina metaphor missionaries monologic observed ohabolana oral oration oratory origin pattern Paulhan performance person petitioner phrases pieces play poems poetic poetry political present printed proverbs question quotation quoted raha Rasamuel reference relations reported riddle says separate single situation social society speaker speaking speech structure style symbolic tale texts tradition trans translated Turn verbal voices wife woman words writing