Over the Lip of the World: Among the Storytellers of Madagascar

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Gifted travel writer, poet, professor of English, and insightful observer of human nature, Colleen McElroy journeyed to Madagascar to undertake a Fulbright research project exploring Malagasy oral traditions and myths In Over the Lip of the World she depicts with equal verve the various storytelling traditions of the island and her own adventures in trying to find and record them.McElroy s tale of an African American woman s travels among the people of Madagascar is told with wit, insight, and humor Throughout it she interweaves English translations of Malagasy stories of heroism and morality, royalty and commoners, love and revenge, and the magic of tricksters and shapechangers. New Read [ Over the Lip of the World: Among the Storytellers of Madagascar ] Author [ Colleen J. McElroy ] For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr In my first attempt at graduate school, I was in a PhD program in folklore An acclaimed program, but not a great fit for me I took one class where we read and discussed ethnographies, and another where we learned fieldwork technique in preparation for our dissertations So this kind of writing and this kind of research is very familiar to me in some ways.The reader has to hang on through a chapter or two before it gets interesting She chooses to start by giving a background of the languages o In my first attempt at graduate school, I was in a PhD program in folklore An acclaimed program, but not a great fit for me I took one class where we read and discussed ethnographies, and another where we learned fieldwork technique in preparation for our dissertations So this kind of writing and this kind of research is very familiar to me in some ways.The reader has to hang...Gosh, I m feeling halfway guilty for not giving this book a four or five star rating since its average rating is 4.60 stars at the time I am writing my review But.while her poetry writing skills shine through with some lovely prose from time to time, the book dragged for me To give McElroy her due, I read a lot of travel and adventure memoirs so perhaps expecting her to write aentertaining book while gathering Malagasy myths and legends may be setting the bar too high Overa...I went back and forth on this book as I was reading it At times I was bored and was going to give it only 2 stars, and then I would get to a section that interested me a bitand I would bump it back up to 3 The book was a combination travelogue and chronicle of Malagasy folktales that the author collected all over the country by talking to village storytellers and others I found the writing lackluster compared to what I normally read, and most of the folktales didn t do much for me I di I went back and forth on this book as I was reading it At times I was bored and was going to give it only 2 stars, and then I would get to a section that interested me a bitand I would bump it back up to 3 The boo...Essential reading for anyone interested in the culture, history and languages of Madagascar Great read

Over the Lip of the World: Among the Storytellers of Madagascar
  • English
  • 10 March 2017
  • Hardcover
  • 250 pages
  • 0295978244
  • Colleen J. McElroy
  • Over the Lip of the World: Among the Storytellers of Madagascar