Introduction: Orality and technauriture of African literatures

Merolla, Daniela

doi:10.4314/tvl.v51i1.8

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Sacred texts are often susceptible to disuse in light of strict provisions that moderate their performance and ensure their fixity. Daniela Merolla thinks that ‘elements of such literatures are at risk of disappearing when styles and texts are linked to specific languages and rituals that are no longer performed as they were in the past’ (Merolla 2014: 80). Ìyẹ̀rẹ̀, the performance of Ifá poetry by babaláwo during ritual and/or festive occasions, is similarly considered walled off from innovation.…”

Section: Breach and Limits Of Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

Performative agency and transition in Àlàbí Ògúndépò’s ìjálá and Yẹmí Ẹlẹ́buìbọn’s Ifá chants

Adeduntan

2024

Africa

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Indigenous Yorùbá poetry is often defined by such features as context, structure, tonal quality and the performer’s identity. Early taxonomy of the poetry focused on the poetics that could be deduced from a long tradition of practice. Recent scholarship in literary and cultural studies has been more interested in showing the ways in which the poetry is being inflected by encounters with postcolonial modernity. While these recent contributions demonstrate how new forms, such as ewì, distil expressive nuances from the older forms and invent new performative practices to address new publics, such studies encourage a generalization that credits to the new forms all the modern advances recorded in the indigenous forms themselves. Looking at specific indigenous forms in terms of how postcolonial modernity has reshaped them, rather than considering them another set of additions to a new generic category, allows us a clearer view of their transition. I track the inventions and changes in the practice of two Yorùbá forms, ìjálá and Ifá chants, using the performances of Àlàbí Ògúndépò and Yẹmí Ẹlẹ́buìbọn. I rely on ethnographic data to show how mutating audiences and electronic storage and retrieval systems have continually shaped composition and performance, discuss the imperatives of modernity and economy in the performative choices of the artists, and show how the performers simultaneously manage their resistance to and adoption of the modern.

show abstract

Section: Breach and Limits Of Structurementioning

confidence: 99%