Expressing Parenthood through Oral Storytelling
It is a time of great upheaval for Bwa young people due to the significant increase in formal schooling and the development of youth labour migration since the 1990s. In such a context, can the educational relationships depicted in traditional folktales be considered subversive, or are they indicat...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nordic Africa Research Network
2016-12-01
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| Series: | Nordic Journal of African Studies |
| Online Access: | https://www.njas.fi/njas/article/view/99 |
| _version_ | 1797698540149932032 |
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| author | Cécile Leguy Alexis Dembele Joseph Tanden Diarra Pierre Diarra |
| author_facet | Cécile Leguy Alexis Dembele Joseph Tanden Diarra Pierre Diarra |
| author_sort | Cécile Leguy |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
It is a time of great upheaval for Bwa young people due to the significant increase in formal schooling and the development of youth labour migration since the 1990s. In such a context, can the educational relationships depicted in traditional folktales be considered subversive, or are they indicative of a new situation where parents are struggling to fulfil their roles? More fundamentally, are parents the best people to educate their own children? This article approaches the educational parenting relationship by investigating the contrasting child figures identified in a corpus of 39 folktales. A first contrast is between the ill-treated orphan and the spoilt child. Likewise, the presence of an obedient child counterbalances the more frequently encountered naughty or difficult children. Lastly, different types of extreme child characters capture our attention, obliging us to think more deeply about their parents’ role in their education. The parent-child relationships in these folktales might seem paradoxical and even subversive, because in them we encounter children who are more mature and reasonable than their parents.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T03:55:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5289d790c1a147fba5ecd463925ddfbd |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1459-9465 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T03:55:47Z |
| publishDate | 2016-12-01 |
| publisher | Nordic Africa Research Network |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nordic Journal of African Studies |
| spelling | doaj.art-5289d790c1a147fba5ecd463925ddfbd2023-09-03T11:54:47ZengNordic Africa Research NetworkNordic Journal of African Studies1459-94652016-12-01253&410.53228/njas.v25i3&4.99Expressing Parenthood through Oral StorytellingCécile LeguyAlexis DembeleJoseph Tanden DiarraPierre Diarra It is a time of great upheaval for Bwa young people due to the significant increase in formal schooling and the development of youth labour migration since the 1990s. In such a context, can the educational relationships depicted in traditional folktales be considered subversive, or are they indicative of a new situation where parents are struggling to fulfil their roles? More fundamentally, are parents the best people to educate their own children? This article approaches the educational parenting relationship by investigating the contrasting child figures identified in a corpus of 39 folktales. A first contrast is between the ill-treated orphan and the spoilt child. Likewise, the presence of an obedient child counterbalances the more frequently encountered naughty or difficult children. Lastly, different types of extreme child characters capture our attention, obliging us to think more deeply about their parents’ role in their education. The parent-child relationships in these folktales might seem paradoxical and even subversive, because in them we encounter children who are more mature and reasonable than their parents. https://www.njas.fi/njas/article/view/99 |
| spellingShingle | Cécile Leguy Alexis Dembele Joseph Tanden Diarra Pierre Diarra Expressing Parenthood through Oral Storytelling Nordic Journal of African Studies |
| title | Expressing Parenthood through Oral Storytelling |
| title_full | Expressing Parenthood through Oral Storytelling |
| title_fullStr | Expressing Parenthood through Oral Storytelling |
| title_full_unstemmed | Expressing Parenthood through Oral Storytelling |
| title_short | Expressing Parenthood through Oral Storytelling |
| title_sort | expressing parenthood through oral storytelling |
| url | https://www.njas.fi/njas/article/view/99 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT cecileleguy expressingparenthoodthroughoralstorytelling AT alexisdembele expressingparenthoodthroughoralstorytelling AT josephtandendiarra expressingparenthoodthroughoralstorytelling AT pierrediarra expressingparenthoodthroughoralstorytelling |