Ruth Finnegan: 7 books

Ruth Finnegan’s Oral Literature in Africa was first published in 1970, and since then has been widely praised as one of the most important books in its field. Based on years of fieldwork, the study traces the history of storytelling across the continent of Africa. This revised edition makes Finnegan’s...

The angel's little sister ('she can do anything!') isn't content with being God's chief harpist: sweet and virtuous.. Oh no! Drum kit and hell are for her! Off she goes. to her brother's despair, falls in love with a two -timing snake, and in furious revenge plans to blow up the universe, snake with...

Language is central to human experience and our understanding of who we are, whether written or unwritten, sung or spoken. But what is language and how do we record it? Where does it reside? Does it exist and evolve within written sources, in performance, in the mind or in speech? For too long,...

An award-winning unput-downable tale of two children building a boat from a log they find buried in the sand and sailing off to far-off fantastic lands in a stormy sea-driven adventure with their faithful - but accident-prone - dog Holly. There they learn much wisdom from a king who, like God, has...

Ruth Finnegan’s epic romance novel, Black Inked Pearl, was inspired by her own dreams. Perhaps these dreams grew from her subconscious or even shreds of memories from past lives, dating all the way back to the Middle Ages. Either way, heroine Kate was born: a naïve Irish girl who jilts her mysterious...

Many accounts of human communication suggest that we are limited to communicating through words, visual images, the mass media and by digital means. This perspective underestimates the multisensory qualities of much of our human interconnecting and the multiple sounds, touches, sights and material...

The study of oral traditions and verbal arts leads into an area of human culture to which anthropologists are increasingly turning their attention. Oral Traditions and the Verbal Arts provides up-to-date guidance on how to approach the study of oral form and their performances, treating both the practicalities...