Oral literature for children [electronic resource] : rethinking orality, literacy, performance, and documentation practices / Aaron Mushengyezi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mushengyezi, Aaron.

Series:

Cross/cultures ; 154.

Cross cultures : readings in post/colonial literatures and cultures in English ; 154

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Folk literature--History and criticism.

Folk literature.

Children's literature--History and criticism.

Children's literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (347 p.)

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; New York : Rodopi, 2013.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

data file

Summary:

This book is the first ever major effort to document and study hundreds of texts from an African (Ugandan) oral culture for children – folktales, riddles, and rhymes – and at the same time to make them available in the local languages and to focus on their cultural and national value. The author surveys the history of collecting in Uganda and situates the texts in their broader geographical, historical, socio-cultural and educational setting, including the early collecting efforts of heritage-minded Ugandans and European missionaries. Most of this preservational work is elusive and under-explored – so that the present book constitutes a major pioneering summary of Ugandan oral culture for children. The book addresses key questions such as: What happens when we collect, transcribe, and translate an oral text? How do we transfer components of the oral text to the page? What are the challenges of translating oral forms targeting specifi¬cally a child audience, and what choices ought to be made in the process? The book provides possible ways of rethink¬ing the debate about orality and literacy as modes of representation – the generic interrelationship between the oral and the written text, and how the two can enter dialogue through transcription and translation. The latter are effective means to archive these oral forms for children and use them to promote literacy and numeracy skills in predominantly oral communities. In the current institutions of formal education in Uganda, this coexistence of orality and literacy is evident in the class¬room environment, where the oral text is turned into words on the page to encourage literacy. Through transcription, the collector is able to capture oral texts in other forms – audio, written, visual, and digital. With the new technologies available, the task is not as arduous as in the past, and the information thus captured is made available in all its wealth for purposes of instruction or entertainment.

Contents:

Preliminary Material

Oral Texts for Children: Audience Dynamics, Form, and Social Value

“Let Me Tell You a Story, Let Me Tell You a Story!”: On Text Structure and Narrative Strategies

From Tape to the Page

On the Translation Process

Afterword

Texts

Informants for Oral Narrative and Interviews

Works Cited

Index.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

94-012-0888-3

OCLC:

831118693

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789401208888 DOI