Stylistic Features of African Oral Narration in Some Selected Works of Contemporary African Writers: The Linguistic Implications

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ikechukwu Asika
Keyword(s):  
African Writers ◽  
Oral Narration

Review of Kargashin, I. (2017). Russian poetic narrations in the 17th–21st centuries: Genesis. Evolution. Poetics. Moscow: Yazyki slavyanskoy kultury. 336 pages.

2019 ◽  
pp. 368-373
Author(s):  
A. S. Bokarev
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Pure Form ◽  
Broad Scope ◽  
Lyrical Poetry ◽  
Oral Narration

The review is concerned with detailed analysis of I. Kargashin’s monograph on Russian poetic narrations in the 17th–21st centuries. Normally applied to the epic genre, the concept of skaz [oral narration, tale] is extrapolated by the scholar to describe lyrical poetry. Hence the broad scope of issues discussed in the book: how accurately can the term be applied to lyrical works, since poetry is anti-narrative in its ‘pure form’? How can one structure the subjective sphere of poems, given that a skaz recreates a consciousness other than that of the author, unlike in lyrical poetry, where the author and the hero are inseparable? Following the questions, the scholar identifies typological characteristics of the examined phenomenon (appropriation of another’s consciousness, realization of this consciousness through a colloquial monologue, and depiction of the subject’s speech in verse), uncovers the reasons for its emergence (including ‘emancipation’ of the hero and transition to the spoken word), and traces its history and development.

scholarly journals The fate of African mask in the works of French-speaking writers in West and Central Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 202-209
Author(s):  
Nina D. Lyakhovskaya
Keyword(s):  
Central Africa ◽  
Francophone Literature ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Ancestor Cult ◽  
The Future ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
History Of ◽  
West And Central Africa ◽  
African Writers ◽  
The 1960S

The article examines the attitude of contemporary African writers to the traditional zoomorphic and anthropomorphic masks. In the 1960s–70s, for the supporters of the theory of negritude, the sacred mask embodied the spirit of ancestors and an inextricable connection with tradition. In a transitional era (the 1990s – the early 21st century), the process of desacralisation of the mask has been observed and such works appear in which the idea of the death of tradition is carried out. The article consistently examines the history of the emergence and strengthening of interest in the image of the African mask as the most striking symbol of African traditions on the part of cultural, art and scientific workers and the reflection of this symbol in the works of representatives of Francophone literature in West and Central Africa in different periods of time. The article concludes about the transformation of the views of the studied writers on the future of African traditions from an enthusiastic and romantic (as, for example, in the lyrics of Léopold Sédar Senghor or Samuel-Martin Eno Belinga) attitude to the images of the African past and tradition – masks, ancestor cult – to despair and bitterness from the awareness of the desacralisation of traditional objects and images and the profanation of tradition under the pressure of the realities of the present day (drama by Koffi Kwahulé). The attitude of African writers to the image of the mask, which is directly related to the themes of preserving traditions and the search of their identity by African literary heroes, is gradually changing, demonstrating the pessimistic view of Francophone African writers on the future of African traditions.

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