This document defines and discusses oral literature. It notes that oral literature refers to verbal art transmitted through word of mouth, including epic poems, songs, myths, and folk tales. Oral literature is produced anonymously and passed down generations through oral transmission. It serves purposes like educating societies, passing on culture and messages, entertainment, and filling time. Oral works are typically shorter forms, fluid, meant to be performed, reflective of shared values, and closely tied to performance contexts.

1. Oral Literature: is the predecessor of
written literature
UNIT 2 . Genres of Literature

2. Definition of Oral Literature
• Finnegan (1970) defined oral literature as a
verbal art of traditional cultures which is
transmitted by word of mouth.
• If we say that literature is an expression of the
values, aspirations, joys and sorrows, etc. of society,
then these expressions do not presuppose literacy.
• The coming of written literature or the collection,
recording or publication of oral literature itself
doesn’t bring oral literature to an end.
• After the world has learned to use writing, oral
literature has existed side by side with the
written records.
Definition

3. Folk oral literature
• The sum of oral works, both poetry and prose,
which are produced usually by anonymous
authors and are preserved in the people's
memory for a long time by being passed on
orally from generation to generation.
• Oral literature refers to any form of verbal art
which is transmitted by word of mouth.
• It includes epic poems, musical genres, folk
tales, songs, and myths.

4. Definitions and understandings of oral
literature
• Oral literature is a broad term which may
include ritual texts, curative chants, epic poems,
musical genres, folk tales, creation tales, songs,
myths, spells, legends, proverbs, riddles, tongue-
twisters, word games, recitations, life histories
or historical narratives.
• Most simply, oral literature refers to any
form of verbal art which is transmitted orally or
delivered by word of mouth.
• Orature is a more recent and less widely used
term which emphasizes the oral character and
nature of literary works.

5. Oral Literature
• In African Oral Literature for Schools, Jane
Nandwa and Austin Bukenya define oral
literature as
• "those utterances, whether spoken, recited or
sung, whose composition and performance
exhibit to an appreciable degree the artistic
character of accurate observation, vivid
imagination and ingenious expression" (1983: 1).

6. • The Canadian Encyclopedia suggests that "the
term oral literature is sometimes used
interchangeably with folklore, but it usually has a
broader focus.
• The expression is self-contradictory: literature,
strictly speaking, is that which is written down; but
the term is used here to emphasize the imaginative
creativity and conventional structures that mark oral
discourse too.
• Oral literature shares with written literature the use
of heightened language in various genres (narrative,
lyric, epic, etc), but it is set apart by being actualized
only in performance and by the fact that the
performer can (and sometimes is obliged to)
improvise so that oral text constitutes an event."

7. • According to the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia,
"Oral literature corresponds in the sphere of the spoken
(oral) word to literature as literature operates in the
domain of the written word.
• It thus forms a generally more fundamental component of
culture, but operates in many ways as one might expect
literature to do.
• The Ugandan scholar Pio Zirimu introduced the
term orature in an attempt to avoid an oxymoron, but
oral literature remains more common both in academic
and popular writing."

8. Oral Literature (or Orature)
• narratives originating (often in pre-literate) societies
composed for spoken (and often dramatic) performances
Such narratives:
• often lack an original/definitive version or author;
• often feature more than one storyteller;
• often are designed for “call and response” audience participation;
• feature linguistic devices designed to enhance the vocal performance for a
live audience;
• often are meant to be sung or chanted at events or ceremonies.

9. Oral Literature
• Pre-literate societies, by definition, have no
written literature, but may possess rich and
varied oral traditions—such as folk epics,
folklore, proverbs and folksong—that effectively
constitute an oral literature.
• Literate societies may continue an oral
tradition - particularly within the family (for
example bedtime stories) or informal social
structures.

10. Oral Literature
• Oral literature refers to any form of verbal art
which is transmitted by word of mouth. It
includes epic poems, musical genres, folk tales,
songs, and myths.
• Oral Literature is used
1. To educate the society on the past events.
2. To act as a way of passing a message/an
information from one generation to another.
3. Used for entertainment.
4. Used as a major way of passing time.
5. Used to preserve the culture and norms of a
community.

11. Folk oral literature.
• The sum of oral works, both poetry and prose,
which are produced usually by anonymous
authors and are preserved in the people's
memory for a long time by being passed on
orally from generation to generation.

12. Characteristics of Oral Literature
• shorter form of literary art. Except epic which
requires a professional. The reason for this is
probably the memory span.
• Variable It is fluid or dynamic because new
things are added every time.
• Performance – means of realization
Finnegan, (1970) oral literature is dependent
on a performer who formulates it in words on a
specific occasion.
• It is a group activity
• Reflects the status quo, conformist. It rarely
deals with the future.

13. Characteristics of . . .
• Some of its didactic forms say things directly.
meaning can be offered through implicature.
• Closely linked with actual occasion or
contexts for performance. A dirge for instance
would be performed in the context of funeral.
Tales are not to be told during day times.