The anthropologist looks at epic

bibliographic database
Line

Periodical article

Title:	The anthropologist looks at epic
Author:	Okpewho, Isidore
Year:	1980
Periodical:	Research in African Literatures
Volume:	11
Issue:	4
Pages:	429-448
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Congo (Democratic Republic of)
Subjects:	Nyanga oral poetry (form)
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/3818222
Abstract:	Professor Daniel Biebuyck epitomizes the virtues of the anthropological study of oral traditions against the pretensions of the literary approach. After his book 'The Mwindo Epic form the Banyanga' (Berkeley, Cal., 1969), Biebuyck came with 'Hero and Chief': Epic literature from the Banyanga (Berkeley, Cal., 1978. In this literary criticism on mainly 'Hero and Chief' it is argued that: valuable as the data that the ethnographer unearths from several years of research may be, they are frequently tainted with some bias that leads the critic to suspect the health of the literary texts they accompany; Biebuyck has seldom explored the comparative nuances even on the narrow compass of material that he has got from the Banyanga, beyond the simple recognition of similarities or otherwise of detail. 'Hero and Chief' is a valuable document, but the comparatist must handle the texts very carefully and form his own judgments in spite of Biebuyck. Notes.