Detail Disruption of Orality in the Writings of Hampate Ba (artikel di dalam Research in African Literatures Vol 31, No 3, Fall 2000 pp. 27-36) Bibliografi Author: Adejunmobi, Moradewun Bahasa: (EN )     Penerbit: Indiana University Press     Tempat Terbit: Indiana    Tahun Terbit: 2000     Jenis: Article - diterbitkan di jurnal ilmiah internasional Fulltext: A64702032005[1].pdf (2.02MB; 0 download) [Informasi yang berkaitan dengan koleksi ini di internet] Abstract In his study of Nigerian writing, entitled Strategic Transformations in Nigerian Writing, Ato Quayson recently proposed that we consider African literature "not as a mere precipitate of culture, but as a process of mediation upon it" (16-17). On this basis, he further argues for increasing attention to be directed at establishing a "typology of strategic filiations" (160) between what he describes as indigenous resources and contemporary African writing. In other words, such resources are to be studied not only for the background they bring to contemporary writing, but also in terms of their varied interactions with indigenous culture and historical events. From the perspective of both writers and critics of African literature, orality is surely one of such "indigenous" resources, and one from which much contemporary African prose takes its roots and inspiration. It is also one that provides the predominant framework within which the texts of Amadou Hampaté Bâ have been analyzed. This derives largely from Hampaté Bâ's deliberate location of his "creative" writing in an elaborate and multilayered context of metanarratives connected in diverse ways to the phenomenon of orality. L'étrange destin de Wangrin and Amkoullel, l'enfant peul are in Hampaté Bâ's corpus exemplary of this particular emphasis. Using these two texts, I wish to re-examine here the connections between orality and writing in Hampaté Bâ's work. The direction of his thinking, I would contend and hope to demonstrate, is not so much to privilege orality in its own right as to subordinate the survival of oral texts in a postcolonial Africa to the professional skills of ethnographers who both transcribe and translate. As is well known, in the context of his writing, Hampaté Bâ was preoccupied with establishing continuities between oral and written texts in Africa. This concern belongs with a larger project of seeking to define and make provision for the significance of tradition in African letters. His particular contribution to this subject is the focus on what I might call the politics of the representation of orality in African texts. In effect, his work signals "a paradigmatic shift" (Quayson 3) in the way francophone African writers use and appropriate indigenous resources. As such, it is time to move beyond discussions of Hampaté Bâ's work whose objective is to prove that orality accounts for the distinctiveness of his writing, and to begin considering other kinds of filiation between orality and writing in his texts. In particular, I would like to suggest that texts like L'étrange destin and Amkoullel are perhaps more about the emergence of a historical context privileging writing above oral transmission than they are about orality on its own. It is an important distinction to make, especially when we begin to compare Hampaté Bâ with a number of other francophone African writers who show an identical interest in the textualization of orality in contemporary writing. My interest, therefore, is not in enumerating the rhetorical strategies that are indicative of the oral. Rather I intend to highlight those narrative points at which the text begins to highlight the significance of writing for the preservation of oral texts. Thus, in L'étrange destin de Wangrin, Hampaté Bâ prefaces his narrative of Wangrin's life with an account of the process of transcription of the story as requested by Wangrin, who expressly transfers to Hampaté Bâ some of the functions normally associated with the office of the griot. This is done in the presence of the griot, and suggests that the griot alone no longer suffices to ensure the transmission and preservation of the story. Accordingly, Wangrin instructs Hampaté Bâ: "Mon petit Amkullel, autrefois tu savais bien conter. Maintenant, que tu sais écrire, tu vas noter ce que je te conterai de ma vie. Et lorsque je ne... Opini Anda Klik untuk menuliskan opini Anda tentang koleksi ini! Lihat Sejarah Pengadaan  Konversi Metadata   Kembali

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