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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Broken strings: interdisciplinarity and Xam oral literature
Author:Solomon, AnneISNI
Year:2009
Periodical:Critical Arts: A Journal of Media Studies
Volume:23
Issue:1
Pages:26-41
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:San
folk tales
oral literature
About persons:Lucy Catherine Lloyd (1834-1914)ISNI
Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek (1827-1875)ISNI
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02560040902738941
Abstract:Long of interest to archaeologists and anthropologists, the Lloyd-Bleek archive of 19th-century /Xam narratives and accounts from the northern Cape area of South Africa has recently engaged literary scholars and poets. Yet this engagement has produced few dedicated studies, and little critical analysis of conventional anthropological readings. This article analyses one of the texts, the well-known 'Song of the Broken String', narrated by Dia!kwain in 1875, recorded and translated by Lucy Lloyd and published by Dorothea Bleek in 1936. Its interpretation exemplifies problems in the study of the /Xam and San arts today. The author suggests that the material demands further attention to methods and neglected interpretive problems, in both anthropological and literary accounts. Such a focus on reading(s) and methods highlights common ground for debate amongst researchers who, despite diverse disciplinary interests, face the same hermeneutical task. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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