Folklore in New World Black Fiction: Writing and the Oral Traditional Aesthetics

For a while, tracing African roots in the artistic creations of blacks in the New World tended to generate much attention as if to suggest that the New World does not have profound impact on their creative spirit. In addition, few studies have tried to construct an interpretive model through which an array of works by New World writers could be meaningfully explored on the basis of their African Diasporic identity.
 
In Folklore in New World Black Fiction, Chiji Ak?ma offers an interpretive model for the reading of the African New World novel focusing on folklore, not as an ingredient, but as the basis for the narratives. The works examined do not contain folklore materials; they are folklore, constituted by the intersections of African oral narrative aesthetics, New World sensibility, and the written tradition. Specifically Ak?ma looks at four African Caribbean and African American novelists, Roy A.K. Heath, Wilson Harris, Toni Morrison, and Jean Toomer.
 
The book seeks to expand the understanding of the forms of folklore as it pertains to black texts. For one, it broadens the dimensions of folklore by looking beyond the oral world of the “simple folk” to the kinds of narrative sophistication associated with writing; it also asserts the importance of performance art in folklore analysis. The study demonstrates the durability of the black aesthetic over artistic forms.
1112707491
Folklore in New World Black Fiction: Writing and the Oral Traditional Aesthetics

For a while, tracing African roots in the artistic creations of blacks in the New World tended to generate much attention as if to suggest that the New World does not have profound impact on their creative spirit. In addition, few studies have tried to construct an interpretive model through which an array of works by New World writers could be meaningfully explored on the basis of their African Diasporic identity.
 
In Folklore in New World Black Fiction, Chiji Ak?ma offers an interpretive model for the reading of the African New World novel focusing on folklore, not as an ingredient, but as the basis for the narratives. The works examined do not contain folklore materials; they are folklore, constituted by the intersections of African oral narrative aesthetics, New World sensibility, and the written tradition. Specifically Ak?ma looks at four African Caribbean and African American novelists, Roy A.K. Heath, Wilson Harris, Toni Morrison, and Jean Toomer.
 
The book seeks to expand the understanding of the forms of folklore as it pertains to black texts. For one, it broadens the dimensions of folklore by looking beyond the oral world of the “simple folk” to the kinds of narrative sophistication associated with writing; it also asserts the importance of performance art in folklore analysis. The study demonstrates the durability of the black aesthetic over artistic forms.
46.95 Out Of Stock
Folklore in New World Black Fiction: Writing and the Oral Traditional Aesthetics

Folklore in New World Black Fiction: Writing and the Oral Traditional Aesthetics

by Chiji Akoma
Folklore in New World Black Fiction: Writing and the Oral Traditional Aesthetics

Folklore in New World Black Fiction: Writing and the Oral Traditional Aesthetics

by Chiji Akoma

Hardcover(1)

$46.95 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Temporarily Out of Stock Online
  • PICK UP IN STORE

    Your local store may have stock of this item.

Related collections and offers


Overview


For a while, tracing African roots in the artistic creations of blacks in the New World tended to generate much attention as if to suggest that the New World does not have profound impact on their creative spirit. In addition, few studies have tried to construct an interpretive model through which an array of works by New World writers could be meaningfully explored on the basis of their African Diasporic identity.
 
In Folklore in New World Black Fiction, Chiji Ak?ma offers an interpretive model for the reading of the African New World novel focusing on folklore, not as an ingredient, but as the basis for the narratives. The works examined do not contain folklore materials; they are folklore, constituted by the intersections of African oral narrative aesthetics, New World sensibility, and the written tradition. Specifically Ak?ma looks at four African Caribbean and African American novelists, Roy A.K. Heath, Wilson Harris, Toni Morrison, and Jean Toomer.
 
The book seeks to expand the understanding of the forms of folklore as it pertains to black texts. For one, it broadens the dimensions of folklore by looking beyond the oral world of the “simple folk” to the kinds of narrative sophistication associated with writing; it also asserts the importance of performance art in folklore analysis. The study demonstrates the durability of the black aesthetic over artistic forms.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780814210710
Publisher: Ohio State University Press
Publication date: 12/15/2007
Edition description: 1
Pages: 162
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author


Chiji Akoma is associate professor at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents


Acknowledgments     ix
Black Oral Performance and Writing Traditions in the New World     1
Roy A. K. Heath and Guyanese Anxiety Lore     21
Wilson Harris: Dream Worlds and the Oral Imagination     42
"Something to Figure In": Toni Morrison and the Complexities of Oral Narrativity     77
"Singing Before the Sun Goes Down": Jean Toomer's Cane and the Black Oral Performance Aesthetic     111
Afterword: Of Goat Paths and Dixie Pike     131
Notes     135
Works Cited     149
Index     159
From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews