Your Reading Response for Samuel Floyd’s piece should include two sections, at least one paragraph each. The first section should respond to the prompt questions listed below. Please write your responses to these questions in your own words and in paragraph form (NOT as individual responses to the questions). The first section should read like a summary with an introductory sentence about the main argument/point of the piece, text that discusses the answers to the Prompt Questions, and a concluding sentence on how these answers are related to a general theme in the text.
The Second Section of your response should include your personal reaction to reading the piece. Did anything jump out to you? Did you agree or disagree with Floyd’s arguments and why? Were there parts of the piece that were difficult to understand? Did the piece change or reaffirm your understanding of “jazz” or African American music in some way? It’s ok if this section is less organized than the first.
Prompt Questions
1. What does Floyd argue is the relationship between sacred and secular life in traditional African culture?
2. Describe the Trickster archetype in African myths according to Floyd. What form do they usually take, where do they live, and what do?
3. According to Floyd and the scholars he cites, what is the relationship between African music and speech?
4. Floyd describes the coexistence of two apparently contradictory processes regarding the ways that individuals stretched the artistic boundaries of ritualized music performances. How do the communities that Floyd refers to reconcile individual achievement and a sense of egalitarianism and social obligation?
