The palm wine drinker

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The palm wine drinker , AKA The Palm-Wine Drinkard , was written in the 1940s and in 1952 published first novel of Nigerian author Amos Tutuola . The story, based on motifs from folk tales of the Yoruba , was written in the local English (Yoruba English or Pidgin English ). At the time of publication, the work was received partly enthusiastically and partly critically both in the western world and in Nigeria. Over time, it was recognized as one of the most important texts in contemporary African literature and translated into numerous languages, including German (1986 under the title Der Palmweintrinker und seine Palmweinzapfer in the city of the dead near Klett-Cotta , Stuttgart).

history

The nameless and rich first-person narrator loves to drink palm wine, a drink that is widespread in West Africa and made from the fermented sap of the palm tree. When his extremely talented palm wine tapper dies, the narrator decides to go to the city of the dead and try to get the tapper back from the realm of the dead. On the journey he meets many spirits and other supernatural beings and experiences numerous adventures. Among other things, he meets a woman who, because she does not want to marry, becomes the wife of a jumping skull; the three divine beings drum, dance and song; and learns why heaven and earth had to part.

Reactions

The first publication in the western world by Faber and Faber was widely discussed. In 1975 the Africanist and literary historian Bernth Lindfors published an anthology which brought together all the reviews of Tutuola's works published up to that point. One of the first reviews was Dylan Thomas , who wrote enthusiastically "A bewitching story, a great, diabolical tale", written in a "young English".

Other early critics, however, described the work as "primitive" or "naive". The New York Times Book Review stated that Tutuola's world had "no connection whatsoever to European rationalism and Christian traditions," calling the author a "real savage" who wrote in an "unwanted style."

Because of such criticisms, some African intellectuals viewed the work as negative for their cause; they feared the novel would corroborate or confirm the West's negative racist view of Africa. Others felt that Tutuola simply retold Yoruba folk tales. It was only later that the work was viewed as an independent, new literary form.

The German translation appeared in 1955; Siegfried Lenz wrote about the work: “You should read yourself and be amazed and be amazed without end. It is a modern and ancient fairy tale at the same time, everything has found its way into it with an enchanting matter of course: the endangerment of existence, its treasures and its shudder, its milk and its magic ”.

expenditure

The work has so far been translated into 13 languages.

First edition
  • The Palmwinedrinkard and His Dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Dead's Town. Faber & Faber, London 1952, ISBN 0-571-04996-6 .
German edition
  • The palm wine drinker. A fairy tale from the Gold Coast. With an afterword by Janheinz Jahn . German by Walter Hilsbecher . Rothe, Wiesbaden 1955. (Several licensed editions of this were published).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://maryokekereviews.blogspot.de/2013/04/the-palm-wine-drinkard-1952-amos-tutuola.html
  2. ^ Bernth Lindfors: Critical Perspectives on Amos Tutuola. Three Continents Press, Washington 1975.
  3. ↑ Selden Rodman: Book Review of Palm-Wine Drinkard. In: New York Times Book Review September 20, 1953.
  4. ↑ Cover text of the edition of the Unionsverlag Zurich, 1994