Imdeduya : : variants of a myth of love and hate from the Trobriand islands of Papua New Guinea / / Gunter Senft.

• Superior document: Culture and Language Use ; Volume 20
• VerfasserIn: Senft, Gunter, 1952-
• Place / Publishing House: Amsterdam, [Netherlands] ;, Philadelphia, [Pennsylvania] : : John Benjamins Publishing Company,, 2017.; ©2017
• Year of Publication: 2017
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Culture and language use ; Volume 20.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (30 pages) :; illustrations, maps.

This volume presents five variants of the Imdeduya myth: two versions of the actual myth, a short story, a song and John Kasaipwalova’s English poem “Sail the Midnight Sun”. This poem draws heavily on the Trobriand myth which introduces the protagonists Imdeduya and Yolina and reports on Yolina’s intention to marry the girl so famous for her beauty, on his long journey to Imdeduya’s village and on their tragic love story. The texts are compared with each other with a final focus on the clash between orality and scripturality. Contrary to Kasaipwalova’s fixed poetic text, the oral Imdeduya versions reveal the variability characteristic for oral tradition. This variability opens up questions about traditional stability and destabilization of oral literature, especially questions about the changing role of myth – and magic – in the Trobriand Islanders' society which gets more and more integrated into the by now “literal” nation of Papua New Guinea.

Table of Contents

Intro -- Imdeduya -- Editorial page -- Title page -- LCC data -- Table of contents -- Acknowledgements -- Maps -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Gerubara's version of Imdeduya - a "'kukwanebu tommwaya tokunabogwa"' - a story of the old men in former times -- 3. Mokopai's version of Imdeduya - the "'liliu Imdeduya mokwita'" - the real Imdeduya myth -- 4. Sebwagau's version of the Imdeduya myth documented by Jerry Leach in annotated English glosses as "A Kula folktale from Kiriwina" -- IMDEDUYA -- 5. John Kasaipwalova's poem "Sail the Midnight Sun" -- 5.1 The poem -- 5.2 A summary of the poem's plot and a few remarks on its structure -- 6. How do the five Imdeduya texts differ from each other and what do they share with one another? -- 6.1 Ethnography reduced - or: What remains is the quest for love -- 1. Title of the texts and the qualities of their protagonists -- 2. The protagonists' places of living -- 3. Reasons for Yolina to set out for his journey -- 4. Preparations for the journey, food and gifts -- 5. Yolina's Imdeduya song -- 6. Villages Yolina visits on his journey to Omyuva -- 7. The villagers' offers and invitations to Yolina and his reaction -- 8. Yolina's arrival at Imdeduya's village on Omyuva -- 9. Events before Imdeduya's and Yolina's marriage and the marriage itself -- 10. Imdeduya's and Yolina's life in the village until the breakup of their marriage -- 11. Yolina leaving Imdeduya and his journey back home -- 6.2 Lasting in literature - à la recherche du temps perdu… -- 7. Concluding remarks on magic, myths and oral literature -- Appendix I. Metadata for the variants of the myth documented on audio-tape tape -- Chapter 1. The Imdeduya song -- Chapter 2. Gerubara's Imdeduya story -- Chapter 3. Mokopai's Imdeduya myth -- Chapter 5. Sail the Midnight Song -- Appendix II. The structure of Gerubara's "Imdeduya" tale.

Appendix IIIa. The structure of Mokopei's version of the Imdeduya myth -- Appendix IIIb. Yolina's journey in Mokopei's version of the Imdeduya myth -- Appendix IVa. The (simplified) structure of Sebwagau's version of the Imdeduya myth -- Appendix IVb. Yolina's journey in Sebwagau's version of the Imdeduya myth -- Appendix V. The structure of John Kasaipwalova's poem "Sail the Midnight Sun" -- References -- Index.