Ethnopoetics refers to poetic traditions which are typically
seen as tribal or otherwise ethnic by the Western world (or indeed
between any ethnoculturally different peoples). Within the field of
linguistics, it refers to the study of linguistic use and structure
in oral narration, including
poetry,
prose narratives, such as
folk tales, ceremonial speech and other forms of extended utterances. It
may also refer to the act of hearing poetries of perceived distant
people, often this distance is in terms of time. Examples are the poetry
of Native Americans, the Native Hawaiian Pidgin, and tribal Africans.
Bibliography
Hymes, Dell H. (1981). "In vain I tried to tell you": Essays in
Native American ethnopoetics. Studies in Native American literature (No.
1); University of Pennsylvania publications in conduct and communication.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
ISBN 0-8122-7806-2 (hbk);
ISBN 0-8122-1117-0 (pbk);
ISBN 0-5851-7266-8 (electronic bk.).
Hymes, Dell H. (2003). Now I know only so far: Essays in ethnopoetics.
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
ISBN 0-8032-2407-9 (hbk);
ISBN 0-8032-7335-5 (pbk).
Tedlock, Dennis. (1972). Finding the center: Narrative poetry of the
Zuņi Indians. New York,
Dial
Press.
Tedlock, Dennis. (1983). The spoken word and the work of
interpretation. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
ISBN 0-8122-7880-1 (hbk.);
ISBN 0-8122-1143-X (pbk.).
Tedlock, Dennis. (1999). Finding the center: The art of the Zuni
storyteller (2nd. ed.). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
ISBN 0-8032-4439-8 (hbk.);
ISBN 0-8032-9440-9 (pbk.)