Between the Blues and Africa: transformation of narratives about African American hollers

Hollers, a genre of African-American songs, have been under observation and discussion for over a century. Their complex rhythm, melody and structure have attracted the attention of many researchers, who advanced theories on their connection to the Blues, or to certain African traditions. Despite the wealth of documentation on the genre, those connections have yet to be properly proved, and the hollers themselves and their formal generalities still await a comprehensive description. In the article we will briefly resume the main theories about field hollers, locate them in the academic trends that saw their developments, and question their reliability by giving a closer look at the references they rely on. In the end, we will look at more recent academic productions, and at how certain methodological turns might give way to new perspectives on hollers.