Stephen Belcher
Publications

Books

Co-editor with John Johnson and Thomas Hale, Oral Epics of Africa: Voices from a Vast Continent. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997.

Epic Traditions in Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.

Articles and Book Chapters

1987. "The Diffusion of the Book of Sindbad." Fabula: Journal of Folktale Studies 28/1-2, pp. 34-58.
1994. "The Framed Tale and the Oral Tradition: A Reconsideration." Fabula: Journal of Folktale Studies. 35/1-2 pp. 1-19.
1994. "Constructed Heroes: Samba Gueladio Djegui." Research in African Literatures 25.1, pp. 75-92.
1996. "Of Birds and Millet: Problems in African Mythology." Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature 43 (1995), pp. 52-66.
1997 "La présence peule dans la tradition épique du Mande." In Han van Dijk and Mirjam de Bruijn, Eds. Peuls et Mandingues: Dialectique des constructions identitaires. Paris: Karthala. Pp 129-146.
1998 "Heroes at the Borders: Bamana and Fulbe Traditions in West Africa." Research in African Literatures 29.1, pp. 43-65
1998 [1995]"Parallel Tracks: The Seven Sages, the Arabian Nights, and Their Arrival in Europe." South Asian Review 19 pp. 11-23.
1999 "Remarques pour le classement de l'histoire de Nankoman." in Jan Jansen, ed. La Geste de Nankoman. Leiden, CNWS. Pp. 9-14.
1999 "Sinimogo--The Man for Tomorrow." In Ralph Austen, ed., In Search of Sunjata: The Mande Epic as History, Literature, and Performance. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 189-210.
2000 "Strategies Compared: The Cultural Translations of Alexis Kagame and Amadou Hampâté Bâ." In Hal Wylie and Bernth Lindfors, editors, Multiculturalism and Hybridity in African Literatures: Selected Papers of the 1998 ALA Conference. Trenton: African World Press. Pp. 379-391.

Dictionary and Encyclopedia Articles

1999 Articles on "Hunters' Narratives" and "Central African Epics" in Margaret R. MacDonald, ed., Traditional Storytelling Today. Fitzroy Dearborn. Pp. 3-5, 6-8.
Forthcoming. Articles on "Epic" and "Myth" in Philip Peek and Kwesi Yankah, eds. Encyclopedia of African Folklore. Garland Press.
Forthcoming. "Frame Tales [Rahmenerzälungen]". Enzyklopädie des Märchens. Göttingen.

Translations

In Hale, Johnson, Belcher, eds., Oral Epics of Africa (above):

 "Hambodedio and Saïgalare" (149-161)
"Silâmaka and Poullôri" (pp. 162-171)
"Silâmaka and Hambodedio" (pp. 172-184) "Samba Gueladio Diegui" (pp. 185-199)
"Mvet Moneblum, or the Blue Man" (pp. 257-273)
"Kahindo" (pp. 294-301)

In Lilyan Kesteloot and Bassirou Dieng, eds. Les épopées d'Afrique Noire (Paris: Karthala, 1997):

 "Mamar Kassaye: un épisode de l'épopée songhaïe" (pp. 404-414)
"L'épopée de Liyongo" (pp. 543-552).

In Tayiru Banbera, Segu Maana Bamanakan Na. Ed. David C. Conrad. (Madison WI: African Studies Center, 1998), "Avant-Propos."

In Austen, ed. In Search of Sunjata (see above).

Seydou Camara, "The Epic of Sunjata -- Structure, Conservation, Transmission."
Karim Traore, "Jeli and Sere, or the Dialectic of the Word in the Mande."
Mamadou Diawara, "Searching for the Historical Ancestor: The Paradigm of Sunjata in Sahelian Oral Traditions (13th-19th centuries)."

Book Reviews

1993/4 African Oral Literature: Backgrounds, Character, and Continuitiesby Isidore Okpewho. Journal of American Folklore 106, pp. 497-499.
1994. Les merveilleux exploits de Djeki la Nzambe by Pierre Celestin Tiki a Koulle a Penda. Research in African Literatures25.2, pp. 188-189.
1995. Défis et prodiges. Ed. and trans. by Manga Bekombo Priso. Research in African Literatures. 26.2, pp. 243-245.
1996. The Making of Bamana Sculpture by Sarah Brett-Smith. Research in African Literatures27.3, pp. 171-173.
1996. The Oral Literature and History of the Wolof People of Waalo, Northern Senegal, by Samba Diop. H-Africa Newsgroup.
The Elusive Epic by Ralph Austen. Research in African Literatures28.2, pp. 185-187.
Ferial Ghazoul: Nocturnal Poetics (Cairo: American U. in Cairo Press). Comparative Literature Studies 35:4, pp. 416-418..
1998. "Of Swords and Poets: Narrative and Epic Tradition in Islam." (Review Article). Religious Studies Review 24.4 (Oct. 1998).

Lena Jayyusi, trans. The Adventures of Sayf ben Dhi Yazan.Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.
M.C. Lyons, The Arabian Epic: Heroic and Oral Story-Telling.3 volumes. Cambridge University Press, 1995.
John Renard. Islam and the Heroic Image: Themes in Literature and the Visual Arts. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1993.
Peter Heath. The Thirsty Sword: Srat 'Antar and the Arabic Popular Epic. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1996.
Dwight Fletcher Reynolds. Heroic Poets, Poetic Heroes: The Ethnography of Performance in an Arabic Oral Epic Tradition. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1995.
Olga M. Davidson. Poet and Hero in the Persian Book of Kings. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1994.
Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych. The Mute Immortals Speak: Pre-Islamic Poetry and the Poetics of Ritual. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1993.
Jaroslav Stetkevych. The Zephyrs of Najd: the Poetics of Nostalgia in the Classical Arabic Nasb. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1993.

1999. Récits épiques des chasseurs bamanan du Maliby Annik Thoyer. Research in African Literatures 30:2, pp. 240-241.

1999. Annik Thoyer. Le riche et le pauvre: contes bamanan du Mali. (Paris, L'Harmattan, 1997). Research in African Literatures 30:2, p. 234.

1999. Zoe S. Strother. Inventing Masks: Agency and History in the Art of the Central Pende(University of Chicago Press: 1997). H-Afrlitciné Newsgroup.

1999 Youssouf Tata Cisse. La confrérie des chasseurs Malinké et Bambara: Mythes, rites, et récits initiatiques. (Paris: ARSAN/Editions nouvelles du sud, 1994) and Annik Thoyer, Récits épiques des chasseurs bamanan du Mali. African Studies Review. Pp. 173-175.

Work In Progress:

submitted: "Hero and Slave in West African Epics", in Kenneth Warren and Ralph Austen, eds. The Atlantic Slave Trade in African and African-American Memory. To Duke University Press.

An Anthology of African Myths on Gender (Ed. and Trans.).

In Preparation: African Traditions of Origin: A Collection.

Main Page

African Epics Resource Page, by Stephen Belcher. © Stephen Belcher, 2000.

HTTP://www.personal.psu.edu/spb3