intervenção:

Aderemi Raji-Oyelade
Department of English, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

CLASSIFYING THE UNCLASSIFIED: THE CHALLENGE OF POSTPROVERBIALITY IN INTERNATIONAL PROVERB SCHOLARSHIP
evento: Colóquio Interdisciplinar sobre Provérbios 2007
organização: AIP
resumo: Beyond the functionalist approach, the formalist classification of conventional proverbs is a valuable means of drawing relations in the analysis of specific sayings across national and continental boundaries. This presentation highlights the importance of alternate classificatory paradigm, to account for the emergence of transgressive Yoruba proverbial speech acts. In defining the theory of postproverbiality, I draw upon previous significant works on classification, variation and transformation (Bamgbose, 1968; Milner, 1969; Kuusi, 1972; Dundes, 1975; Olatunji, 1984; Alaba, 1986; Owomoyela, 1988; and Mieder & Litovkina, 1999). Other critical responses to the deconstructionist theory (Owomoyela, 2005; Yitah, 2006; and Jegede, 2006) expand its justification for the description of the subversive imagination in (African) proverb scholarship. The presentation aims not only to discuss the typologies of postproverbial utterances (in Yoruba culture); its ultimate objective is to offer a set vocabulary for the analysis of similar or related proverbial ruptures in other societies.