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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Usishike Shauri la Mwanamke: Irony in Kiswahili Folktales |
Author: | Njozi, Hamza Mustafa |
Year: | 1998 |
Periodical: | Journal of African Cultural Studies |
Volume: | 11 |
Issue: | 1 |
Period: | June |
Pages: | 59-71 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | East Africa |
Subjects: | folk tales Swahili language Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Education and Oral Traditions |
External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13696819808717826 |
Abstract: | By way of commemorating the centennial anniversary of the publication in 1898 of C. Velten's collection of Kiswahili folktales, 'Märchen und Erzählungen der Suaheli', the present author examines how irony as an artistic device has been used in three of the tales collected by Velten in German East Africa: 'Usishike shauri la mwanamke' (Do not follow the advice of a woman), 'Wanawake watu gani?' (What sort of people are women?') and 'Mfalme na waziri wake' (The chief and his minister). As works of art, and particularly when the artistic device of irony is used, folktales are often capable of having more than one legitimate interpretation. The author submits that the artistry with which the device of irony has been deployed in these tales was by design, and that irony conditions much of their aesthetic effect. App., bibliogr., sum. |