This book explores the role of traditional East Asian worldviews, ethical values, and common practices in the shaping of East Asian narratives in literature and film. It offers a specific method for this analysis. The interpretive goal is to arrive at interpretations that more accurately engage cultural information so that narratives are understood more closely in terms of their native cultural rather than that of the reader/interpreter. Current neuroscience related to processes of perception and the attribution of meaning form the basis for the theory of interpretation offered in the first half of the volume.

Table of Contents
I. About this book and this course
II. A Theory of Interpretation for Cross-Cultural Reading
III. Method - Elements of (Course) Interpretive Projects
IV. Method - Designing and Completing (Course) Interpretive Projects
V. Cultural Contexts - Traditional Thought Systems in East Asian Love Narratives
VI. Glossary of Key Terms and Concepts

Adapted version of Compact Anthology of World Literature II: Volume 6

I. Part I: Modernism
II. Part 2: Postcolonial Literature
III. Part 3: Contemporary Literature

Ruth Finnegan’s Oral Literature in Africa was first published in 1970, and since then has been widely praised as one of the most important books in its field. Based on years of fieldwork, the study traces the history of storytelling across the continent of Africa.

This revised edition makes Finnegan’s ground-breaking research available to the next generation of scholars. It includes a new introduction, additional images and an updated bibliography, as well as its original chapters on poetry, prose, "drum language" and drama, and an overview of the social, linguistic and historical background of oral literature in Africa. Oral Literature in Africa has been accessed by hundreds of readers in over 60 different countries, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and numerous other African countries.

Other formats available here: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/97

Table of Contents:

I • INTRODUCTION
1. The 'oral' nature of African unwritten literature
The significance of performance in actualization, transmission, and composition. Audience and occasion. Implications for the study of oral literature. Oral art as literature.
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0025.01

2. The perception of African oral literature
Nineteenth-century approaches and collections. Speculations and neglect in the twentieth century. Recent trends in African studies and the revival of interest in oral literature.
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0025.02

3. The social, linguistic, and literary background
Social and literary background. The linguistic basis — the example of Bantu. Some literary tools. Presentation of the material. The literary complexity of African cultures.
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0025.03

II • POETRY
4. Poetry and patronage
Variations in the poet's position. Court poets. Religious patronage. Free-lance and wandering poets. Part-time poets. A note on 'epic'.
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0025.04

5. Panegyric
Introductory: nature and distribution; composers and reciters; occasions. Southern Bantu praise poetry: form and style; occa­sions and delivery; traditional and contemporary significance.
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0025.05

6. Elegiac poetry
General and introductory. Akan funeral dirges: content and themes; structure, style, and delivery; occasions and functions; the dirge as literature.
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0025.06

7. Religious poetry
Introductory. Didactic and narrative religious poetry and the Islamic tradition; the Swahili tenzi. Hymns, prayers, and incanta­tions: general survey; the Fante Methodist lyric. Mantic poetry: Sotho divining praises; odu Ifa (Yoruba).
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0025.07

8. Special purpose poetry — war, hunting, and work
Military poetry: Nguni; Akan. Hunting poetry: Yoruba ijala; Ambo hunters' songs. Work songs.
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0025.08

9. Lyric
Occasions. Subject-matter. Form. Composition.
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0025.09

10. Topical and political songs
Topical and local poetry. Songs of political parties and movements: Mau Mau hymns; Guinea R.D.A. songs; Northern Rhodesian party songs.
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0025.10

11. Children's songs and rhymes
Lullabies and nursery rhymes. Children's games and verses; Southern Sudanese action songs.
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0025.11

III • PROSE
12. Prose narratives I. Problems and theories
Introductory. Evolutionist interpretations. Historical-geographi­cal school. Classification and typologies. Structural-functional approach. Conclusion.
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0025.12

13. Prose narratives II. Content and form.
What is known to date: content and plot; main characters. Types of tales: animal stories; stories about people; 'myths'; ‘legends' and historical narratives. What demands further study: occasions; role of narrators; purpose and function; literary conventions; per­formance; originality and authorship. Conclusion.
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0025.13

14. Proverbs
The significance and concept of the proverb. Form and style. Content. Occasions and functions. Specific examples: Jabo; Zulu; Azande. Conclusion.
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0025.14

15. Riddles
Riddles and related forms. Style and content. Occasions and uses. Conclusion.
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0025.15

16. Oratory, formal speaking, and other stylized forms
Oratory and rhetoric: Burundi; Limba. Prayers, curses, etc. Word play and verbal formulas. Names.
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0025.16

IV • SOME SPECIAL FORMS
17. Drum language and literature
Introductory — the principle of drum language. Examples of drum literature: announcements and calls; names; proverbs; poetry. Conclusion.
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0025.17

18. Drama
Introductory. Some minor examples: Bushman 'plays'; West African puppet shows. Mande comedies. West African masquerades: South-Eastern Nigeria; Kalabari. Conclusion.
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0025.18

A deep exploration of the fundamental symbols, ceremonies, rituals, and transformative narratives of the world's great wisdom traditions and mythological systems. With special attention paid to their relevance to the modern world.

Using insights from the fields of anthropology, depth psychology, religious studies, world literature, and archaeology, we explore the living knowledge of the world’s great wisdom traditions and what they can teach us about how to live more meaningful, integrated lives in the modern world.

Table of Contents:
Chapter One - What is Mythology?
Chapter Two - Myth & Metaphor
Chapter Three - Myth & Archetype
Chapter Four - Myth & Meaning
Chapter Five - Myth & Ritual
Chapter Six - Myth & The Hero
Chapter Seven - Myth & The Anti-Hero
Chapter Eight - Myth & Revenge
Chapter Nine - Final Thoughts

Table of Contents:
I. MESOPOTAMIA
The Enuma Elish
The Myth of Telepinu, Hittite God of Fertility

II. PERSIA
"Avesta, The Bible of Zoroaster"

III. INDIA
From the Matsya Purana ("The Yuga Cycle")
From: Hindu Mythology and Literature as Recorded by Portuguese Missionaries of the Early 17th Century

IV. EGYPT
From Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride ("Of Isis and Osiris")

V. WEST AFRICA
From Myths of Ife, Yoruba Creation Myth

VI. GREECE
From Theogony, by Hesiod
From Works and Days, by Hesiod
“Hymn V” (To Aphrodite) by Homer
“Hymn II (To Demeter)” by Homer
“Hymn IV (To Hermes)” by Homer

VII. CHINA
from Tao, The Great Luminant: Essays from the Huai Nan Tzu, from “Dissertation on The Cosmic Spirit”
from Tao, The Great Luminant: Essays from the Huai Nan Tzu, from “Dissertation on Life and Soul or The Keeper of the Soul"

VIII. JAPAN
from Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697, Vol. 1
Nihongi: Endnotes

IX. NORTHERN EUROPE
Gylfaginning (The Fooling Of Gylfe), from the Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson

X. BRITISH ISLES
from the Lebor Gabala Erenn (The Book of the Takings of Ireland)
Cath Maige Tuired ("The Second Battle of Mag Tuired")

XI. SOUTH AMERICA
from "Sum and Narration of the Incas, which the Indians called Capaccuna, who were lords of the city of Cuzco, and everything on the subject"
from The Royal Commentaries of the Incas, By the Inca Garcilasso de la Vega

XII. MESOAMERICA
from The Popol Vuh

XIII. NORTH AMERICA
The Story of the Emergence, from Navajo Legends
The Story of the Emergence: Endnotes
A Tale of Skyworld, from Seneca fiction, legends and myths

Table of Contents:
I. MESOPOTAMIA
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh, Glossary

II. PERSIA
The Myth of Isfendiyár, from The Shahnameh

III. INDIA
The Ramayana
Ramayana, Glossary

IV. AFRICA
The Myth of Mbega
The Story of Sikulume

V. CHINA
Li Chi Slays the Serpent

VI. JAPAN
Kotan Utunnai
Kotan Utunnai, Endnotes

VII. GREECE
An Introduction to Homer’s Iliad
The Argonautica (Books I-IV), by Apollonius
Medea, by Euripides

VIII. ROME
The Aeneid, Analysis

IX. NORTHERN EUROPE
from Stories of King Arthur and his Knights
from the Volsunga Saga
Beowulf

X. NORTH AMERICA
“Red Woman and the Deeds of Two Boys” (AKA “Lodge Boy and Thrown Away”)
"Caught by a Hairstring"