"In vain I tried to tell you" : essays in Native American ethnopoetics

Book

"In vain I tried to tell you" : essays in Native American ethnopoetics / Dell Hymes ; with a new preface by the author.

Summary:

""In vain I tried to tell you" showcases the methodology and theory of ethnopoetics. Focusing on the rich Native storytelling traditions of the Pacific Northwest, Hymes investigates what particular stylistic and linguistic devices and patterns in oral tales reveal about rhythm and order in the cultures creating them. A breathtaking series of analyses of particular myths and their relationship to performance forms the centerpiece of this volume. The concluding essays explore Native perspectives and approaches to stories, highlighting the reasons behind the storytellers' choices of characters, genres, and titles." "This edition features a new preface by the author, a more comprehensive general index, and an expanded index to analyzed translations and English-language texts."--BOOK JACKET.

Record details

ISBN: 0803273436
ISBN: 9780803273436
Physical Description: viii, 403 pages : maps ; 23 cm
Publisher: Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, ©2004.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references (pages 386-398) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:: Some North Pacific Coast poems : a problem in anthropological philology postscript -- How to talk like a bear in Takelma -- Breakthrough into performance -- Louis Simpson's "The deserted boy" postscripts -- Verse analysis of a Wasco text : Hiram Smith's "At'unaqa" -- Breakthrough into performance revisited -- Myth and tale titles of the lower Chinook postscript -- The "wife" who "goes out" like a man : reinterpretation of a Clackamas Chinook myth postscripts -- Discovering oral performance and measure verse in American Indian narrative -- Reading Clackamas texts.