"In vain I tried to tell you": Essays in Native American Ethnopoetics

by Dell Hymes

Overview

A landmark volume that revolutionized our understanding of the power and significance of Native stories and storytellers in North America, "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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803273436
Publisher:	Nebraska Paperback
Publication date:	06/01/2004
Pages:	403
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Dell Hymes is professor emeritus of anthropology and English at the University of Virginia. He is the author of many books, including Now I Know Only So Far: Essays in Ethnopoetics (Nebraska 2003).

Table of Contents

Tables
Introduction
Ethnological Note
Orthographic Note

PART ONE. UNSUSPECTED DEVICES AND DESIGNS
1 Some North Pacific Coast Poems: A Problem in Anthropological Philology
2 How to Talk Like a Bear in Takelma

PART TWO. BREAKTHROUGH TO PERFORMANCE
3 Breakthrough into Performance
4 Louis Simpson's "The Deserted Boy"
5 Verse Analysis of a Wasco Text: Hiram Smith's "At'unaqa"
6 Breakthrough into Performance Revisited

PART THREE. TITLES, NAMES, AND NATURES
7 Myth and Tale Titles of the Lower Chinook
8 The "Wife" Who "Goes Out" Like a Man: Reinterpretation of a Clackamas Chinook Myth
9 Discovering Oral Performance and Measured Verse in American Indian Narrative
10 Reading Clackamas Texts
Epilog

Index to Analyzed Translations and English-Language Texts
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"The culmination of the most important work in recent decades on the poetics of Native American oral traditions."—World Literature Today

World Literature Today

"A gem that should be fundamental required reading for every aspiring and practicing folklorist."—Journal of American Folklore

Journal of American Folklore

"Readers will find in this book an unusual wedding of passion and precision. . . . Well-written, thoughtfully constructed, edited for consistency and adorned with helpful notes on Northwest Coast ethnology and Chinookan orthography."—American Indian Culture and Research Journal

American Indian Culture and Research Journal

"The single most penetrating analysis of a body of text materials in the Native American literature."—Jarold Ramsey

"The most important work in recent decades on the poetics of Native American oral traditions. . . . Hymes restores voice to oral texts that have been little more than museum pieces."—World Literature

"A gem that should be required reading for every aspiring and practicing folklorist."—Journal of American Folklore

"An important landmark."—Choice

From the Publisher