Which of the following is a key methodological concern when researching oral tradition in postcolonial contexts?

Correct option is C

The correct answer is Translating performative context across cultures
Introduction: Researching oral traditions in postcolonial settings involves navigating complex power dynamics, historical erasures, and cultural translation. The researcher must be critically aware of their own position and the potential for misinterpretation.
Information Booster:
· A primary concern is the problem of translation, which goes beyond just words. The researcher must attempt to translate the entire performative context—the ritual significance, audience participation, musical elements, and cultural codes—for an academic audience that may be unfamiliar with it.
· This involves ethical questions about representation, appropriation, and the risk of decontextualizing a living tradition into a static "text" for Western academic consumption, potentially replicating colonial patterns of knowledge extraction.
· The goal is to present the oral tradition with its cultural sovereignty and complexity intact, rather than reducing it to fit pre-existing Western literary categories.
Additional Knowledge:
· (A) works against the nature of oral tradition, which is often communal and variable.
· (B) and (D) are specific theoretical lenses that could be applied, but they are not the overarching methodological concern inherent to the postcolonial oral research situation itself.