Event: Oral Literature in the Contemporary Mediterranean. Old Genres into New Wineskins
Date: 31 January 2020
Time: 18:00
Venue: Faculty of Arts Library, University of Malta, Msida Campus

On 31 January 2020 at 18.00, Dr Óscar Abenójar Sanjuán will be giving a public talk in English on “Oral Literature in the Contemporary Mediterranean. Old Genres into New Wineskins” in the Faculty of Arts Library of the University of Malta, Tal-Qroqq.

This talk is part of the Oral Traditions project of the Department of Maltese in the Faculty of Arts of the University of Malta, which is supported by the Research Fund of the University and Klabb Kotba Maltin.

Several old narratives, songs, rituals, riddles, and superstitions have survived in the Mediterranean region from antiquity until today. Nevertheless, the ways of transmission are no longer the same. This talk will give some examples of the transformations occurring nowadays in the field of oral literature.

Óscar Abenójar has a PhD in Comparative Literature and he has specialised in Oral Narrative and Ethnography. At present, he teaches Hispanic Literature at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, Republic of Korea. He is the author or co-author, amongst others, of several studies about oral traditions in North Africa: Cuentos populares de la Cabilia (2014); La hermosa Ilona: antología de baladas populares húngaras (2014); La princesa cautiva y el pájaro del viento: mitos y cuentos del norte de Argelia (2015), and La grandas de oro y otros cuentos tradicionales del oasis del Mzab (Argelia) (2016).

In June 2019, Dr Óscar Abenójar Sanjuán gave a video talk on Techniques and Methods for Collecting Oral Tradition to researchers as part of the Oral Traditions project. This is his first visit to Malta.