1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910140294803321

Autore

Lee Haring

Titolo

How to read a folktale : the Ibonia epic from Madagascar / / translation and reader's guide by Lee Haring

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Open Book Publishers

Cambridge, England : , : Open Book Publishers, , 2013

©2013

ISBN

1-909254-08-8

2-8218-5410-2

1-909254-07-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (x, 152 pages) : illustrations ; digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

World Oral Literature Series ; ; Volume 4

Disciplina

398.209691

Soggetti

Tales - Madagascar

Folklore - Madagascar

Mythology, Malagasy

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

"World Oral Literature Project"--Cover.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Foreword to Ibonia -- Preface -- 1. Introduction: What Ibonia is and How to Read it -- 2. How to Read Ibonia: Folkloric Restatement -- 3. What it is: Texts, Plural -- 4. Texture and Structure: How it is Made -- 5. Context, History, Interpretation -- 6. Ibonia, He of the Clear and Captivating Glance -- There Is No Child -- Her Quest for Conception -- The Locust Becomes a Baby -- The Baby Chooses a Wife and Refuses Names -- His Quest for a Birthplace -- Yet Unnamed -- Refusing Names from Princes -- The Name for a Perfected Man -- Power -- Stone Man Shakes -- He Refuses More Names -- Games -- He Arms Himself -- He Is Tested -- He Combats Beast and Man -- He Refuses Other Wives -- The Disguised Flayer -- An Old Man Becomes Stone Man's Rival -- Victory: "Dead, I Do Not Leave You on Earth; Living, I Give You to No Man 3. -- Return of the Royal Couple -- Ibonia Prescribes Laws and Bids Farewell Appendix: Versions and Variants -- Text 0, "Rasoanor 3. Antandroy, 1650's. Translated from Étienne de Flacourt (1661) -- Text 2, "Ibonia3. Merina tale collected in 1875-1877. James Sibree Jr. (1884) -- Text 3, Merina tale collected in 1875-



1877. Summary by John Richardson (1877) -- Text 6, "The king of the north and the king of the south3. Merina tale collected in 1907-1910 at Alasora, region of Antananarivo. Translated from Charles Renel, Charles (1910) -- Text 7, "Iafolavitra the adulterer 3. Tanala tale collected in 1907-1910 in Ikongo region, Farafangana province. Translated from Charles Renel (1910) -- Text 8, "Soavololonapanga3. Bara tale, ca. 1934. Translated from Raymond Decary (1964) -- Text 9, "The childless couple 3. Antankarana tale, collected in 1907-1910 at Manakana, Vohemar province. Translated from Charles Renel (1910) -- Text 14, "The story of Ravato-Rabonia3. Sakalava, 1970's. Translated from Suzanne Chazan-Gillig (1991) -- Works Cited -- Index.

Sommario/riassunto

How to Read a FoIktale offers the first English translation of Ibonia, a spellbinding tale of old Madagascar. Much of its plot sounds familiar: a powerful royal hero attempts to rescue his betrothed from an evil adversary and, after a séries of tests and duels, he and his lover are joyfully united with a marriage that affirms the royal lineage. These fairytale elements link Ibonia with European folktales, but the taie is still very much a product of Madagascar. It contains African-style praise poetry for the hero; it presents Indonesian-style riddles and poems; and it inflates the form of folktale into epic proportions. Recorded when the Malagasy people were experiencing European contact for the first time, Ibonia proclaims the power of the ancestors against the foreigner.  Through Ibonia, Lee Haring expertly helps readers to understand the very nature of folktales. His définitive translation, originally published in 1994, has now been fully revised to emphasize its poetic qualities, while his new introduction and detailed notes give insight into the fascinating imagination and symbols of the Malagasy. Haring's research connects this exotic narrative with fundamental questions not only of anthropology but also of literary criticism.