Comparative Studies in African Dirge Poetry

The role and function of African dirge is examined in this important contribution to research in African literature by a Nigerian scholar. Moving from the generality of the African milieu to the specific of Igbo heritage, she explores written and oral modes of poetic expressions; and also posits a theory of the African dirge with features comparatively distinctive from the formalised structures of western art. The author interest in traditional African dirge songs and modern poetry is borne from her conviction that nowhere in the corpus of oral poetry have there been more works of heightened creativity than the dirge forms.