Dell Hymes

In Vain I Tried to Tell You

Essays in Native American Ethnopoetics

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

A landmark volume that revolutionized our understanding of the power and significance of Native stories and storytellers in North America, ""In vain I tried to tell you"" showcases the methodology and theory of ethnopoetics. Focusing on the rich Native storytelling traditions of the Pacific Northwest, Hymes investigates what particular stylistic and linguistic devices and patterns in oral tales reveal about rhythm and order in the cultures creating them. A breathtaking series of analyses of particular myths and their relationship to performance forms the centerpiece of this volume. The concluding essays explore Native perspectives and approaches to stories, highlighting the reasons behind the storytellers' choices of characters, genres, and titles. This edition features a new preface by the author, a more comprehensive general index, and an expanded index to analyzed translations and English-language texts.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Nebraska
• Seitenzahl: 403
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. Juni 2004
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 238mm x 154mm x 24mm
• Gewicht: 576g
• ISBN-13: 9780803273436
• ISBN-10: 0803273436
• Artikelnr.: 21822502

Autorenporträt

Dell Hymes is professor emeritus of anthropology and English at the University of Virginia. He is the author of many books, including Now I Know Only So Far: Essays in Ethnopoetics (Nebraska 2003).

Inhaltsangabe

Tables
Introduction
Ethnological Note
Orthographic Note
PART ONE. UNSUSPECTED DEVICES AND DESIGNS
1 Some North Pacific Coast Poems: A Problem in Anthropological Philology
2 How to Talk Like a Bear in Takelma
PART TWO. BREAKTHROUGH TO PERFORMANCE
3 Breakthrough into Performance
4 Louis Simpson's "The Deserted Boy"
5 Verse Analysis of a Wasco Text: Hiram Smith's "At'unaqa"
6 Breakthrough into Performance Revisited
PART THREE. TITLES, NAMES, AND NATURES
7 Myth and Tale Titles of the Lower Chinook
8 The "Wife" Who "Goes Out" Like a Man: Reinterpretation of a Clackamas
Chinook Myth
9 Discovering Oral Performance and Measured Verse in American Indian
Narrative
10 Reading Clackamas Texts
Epilog
Index to Analyzed Translations and English-Language Texts
Bibliography
Index

Rezensionen

"The most important work in recent decades on the poetics of Native American oral traditions. . . . Hymes restores voice to oral texts that have been little more than museum pieces."--World Literature "A gem that should be required reading for every aspiring and practicing folklorist."--Journal of American Folklore "An important landmark."--Choice