The Path Is Open
The Legacy of Melville and Frances Herskovits in African Oral Narrative Analysis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9250126 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Olabiyi Babalola Joseph Yai (corresponding author), Olabiyi Babalola Yai |
| Year | 1999 |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 1-16 |
| Publication date | 1999-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Research in African Literatures (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0034-5210 • E-ISSN: 1527-2044 |
| Publisher | Indiana University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2979/ral.1999.30.2.1 |
| OpenAlex | W1965055791 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 12 |
| References cited | 3 |
An unresolved tragedy is inherent in the task of translation. The translator knows that translation is at once impossible and necessary. That tragedy attains heroic proportions with anthropologists insofar as they are translators of entire cultures. Thus, anthropologists, at least the most honest and perceptive among them, are tragic heroes. This proposition became crystallized in my mind as an aphorism as I read the last sentence of Melville and Frances Herskovits's lengthy and challenging introduction to their Dahomean Narrative : "As spoken forms, the stories should preferably be read aloud." It is not by chance that this sentence concludes 122 pages of substantial analytical discourse in cultural anthropology. I see it as an impassioned call upon readers to displace themselves, as an invitation to leave their own world and inhabit the Fon cultural world. We are invited to read aloud, in English, Fon texts of various genres that were supposed to have been performed orally, then translated into French by Dahomean interpreters, and finally translated into English by the anthropologist authors. Only a hero indeed could cross so many borders successfully—but we do know that no such heroes ever existed. The reason is not far to find
Aphorism · Art · Ethnography · HERO · Interpreter · Linguistics · Literature · Narrative · Proposition · Sentence · Tragedy (event) · African Studies and Ethnography · Caribbean and African Literature and Culture · Computer Science · Cultural Identity and Heritage · History · Philosophy
Una conversación entre guineoecuatorianos
Entre las aguas/Between the Waters
The horses of Ò.yó
Decolonization without a linguistic turn is like drinking sugar without tea
The Tabwa Context
Telling Tales While Keeping Secrets
Writing Oral Narrative
Conclusion
Storytelling in Northern Zambia
Making the Case for Popular Songs in East Africa
Is African Oral Literature Literature
Oríkì and the making of an African sociologist
| Unique citing works | 12 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,6 |
| Citation span | 2006 - 2026 (21) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 10 |