epic poetry - 2023 ACF Nationals

Question

A two-page note on this genre in Ruth Finnegan’s book Oral Literature in Africa dubiously claims that this genre “hardly occur[s] in sub-Saharan Africa.” For 10 points each:

[10e] Name this type of long narrative poem, which in Africa is exemplified by ones about Lianja and Sundiata.

ANSWER: epic poetry [accept Epic of Sundiata; accept Lianja Epic; reject “national epics”]

[10m] Isidore Okpewho’s (“oak-PAY-woh’s”) rebuttal to Finnegan analyzes the story of Kambili as an epic through the lens of this theory. This hypothesis, named for two scholars, theorizes that oral poets used formulas and repetition to memorize long poems.

ANSWER: Parry–Lord hypothesis [prompt on oral-traditional theory or oral tradition; prompt on oral-formulaic composition]

[10h] Another rebuttal to Finnegan is an epic about the Arab–Byzantine wars written in this form. This form of Swahili heroic narrative poetry consists of four-line eight-syllable stanzas whose fourth line retains a rhyme constant through the poem.

ANSWER: utenzi [or utend̠i; accept Utenzi wa Tambuka or Utend̠i wa Tambuka; accept Utenzi wa Hirqal or Utend̠i wa Hirqal]

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Summary


2023 ACF Nationals	04/22/2023	Y	21	12.38	100%	24%	0%

Data


Georgia Tech B	Claremont A	10	0	10
Johns Hopkins A	UC Berkeley A	10	0	10
Florida B	Duke A	10	0	10
Yale A	McGill A	10	10	20
MIT A	Michigan A	10	0	10
Minnesota A	Harvard A	10	0	10
Minnesota B	NYU A	10	0	10
Penn A	Houston A	10	0	10
South Carolina A	Purdue A	10	0	10
Virginia A	Imperial A	10	0	10
Chicago C	Illinois A	10	0	10
Ohio State A	Columbia A	10	10	20
North Carolina A	Chicago B	10	0	10
Stanford A	Northwestern A	10	0	10
Columbia B	WUSTL A	10	0	10
WUSTL B	UC Berkeley B	10	0	10
Florida A	Yale B	10	10	20
Georgia Tech A	Penn State A	10	10	20
Maryland A	Rutgers A	10	0	10
Rutgers B	Texas A	10	0	10
Brown A	Cornell B	10	10	20