TABLE
OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION
MAIN BODY
v The
meaning of Oral Literature, and the content of Oral literature Genres.
CONCLUSSION
REFERENCES
Oral literature or folk 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. 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. Even when these are collected and
published by scholars such as folklorists
and paremiographers, the result is
still often referred to as "oral literature". Literate societies may
continue an oral tradition - particularly within the family or informal social
structures. The telling of urban
legends may be considered an example of oral literature. History of the oral literature concept
is seen in societies with vigorous oral conveyance practices to be a general
term inclusive of oral literature. Thus even where no phrase in local language
which exactly translates "oral literature" is used, what constitutes
"oral literature" as understood today is already understood to be
part or all of the lore media with which a society conducts profound and common
cultural affairs among its members, orally. In this sense, oral lore is an
ancient practice and concept natural to the earliest storied communications and
transmissions of bodies of knowledge and culture in verbal form near the dawn
of language-based human societies, and 'oral literature' thus understood was
putatively recognized in times prior to recordings of history in non-oral media
including painting and writing. However, claims that oral literature is
frequently memorized and passed down without any variation are not plausible.
For example, the great oral Sundiata,
the great oral epic from Mali
is known to exist in three versions, including both prose and verse.
The
Oral Literature genres include the follows;
Folklore, consists of legends,
music,
oral
history, proverbs,
jokes,
popular beliefs,
fairy
tales, stories,
tall
tales, and customs included in the traditions
of a culture, subculture, or group. It also
includes the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared.
Folklore is the renderings of a culture which have been passed down orally from
generation to generation. It includes stories of many kinds and other pertinent
information regarding a culture-folk recipes and remedies. Folklore is relevant
to children’s literature because the stories that were told as entertainments
for adults in past centuries have been passed on to children. The study
of folklore is sometimes called folkloristics,
and people who study folklore are sometimes referred to as "folklorists".
Folklore can be divide into four areas of study: artifacts
(such as voodoo dolls), describable and transmissible entity (oral
tradition), culture,
behavior (rituals).
"Folktales" is a general term for different varieties of traditional
narrative. The telling of stories appears to be a cultural universal, common to
basic and complex societies alike. Even the forms folktales take are certainly
similar from culture to culture, and comparative studies of themes and narrative
ways have been successful in showing these relationships. Also it is considered
to be an oral tale to be told for everybody. On the other hand, folklore can be
used to accurately describe a figurative narrative, which has no sacred or
religious content.
Myths
are the stories of a culture that attempt to explain the natural world
including that of human behavior. These are serious stories which cultures create
to answer questions such as why does the sun move across the sky every day?
There are nature myths, creation myths and hero myths that appear in books for
children. An example of a nature myth is the Greek story of Demeter and
Persephone which explains the occurrence of the four seasons.
Poetry, is a form of literary
art
which uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities
of language-such
as phonaesthetics, sound
symbolism, and metre-to
evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic
ostensible meaning.
Ancient attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle's
Poetics,
focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric,
drama,
song
and comedy.
Later attempts concentrated on features such as repetition, verse
form
and rhyme,
and emphasized the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from more
objectively-informative, prosaic
forms of writing. From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more
generally regarded as a fundamental creative act employing language. Poetry
uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, or
to evoke emotive responses. Devices such as assonance,
alliteration,
onomatopoeia
and rhythm
are sometimes used to achieve musical
or incantatory
effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism,
irony
and other stylistic
elements of poetic diction
often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly figures of
speech such as metaphor,
simile
and metonymy
create a resonance between otherwise disparate images-a layering of meanings,
forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may
exist, between individual verses,
in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm. Some poetry types are specific to
particular cultures
and genres
and respond to characteristics of the language in which the poet writes.
A
fable, is a succinct fictional story, in prose
or verse, that features
animals, mythical creatures,
plants, inanimate objects or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized
(given human qualities such as verbal communication), and that illustrates or
leads to an interpretation of a moral
lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be added explicitly in a
pithy maxim. Fables, these
are short, didactic stories which typically use animals to portray human
behavior. They usually include a stated moral.
A fable differs from a parable
in that the latter excludes
animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors that assume
speech and other powers of humankind. Usage has not always been so clearly
distinguished. In the King James Version
of the New Testament,
was rendered by the translators as "fable"
in First
and Second Timothy,
in Titus
and in First Peter.
A person who writes fables is a fabulist.
A
saying is any concisely written
or spoken linguistic expression that is especially memorable because of its
meaning. There are a number of specific types of sayings: Aphorism,
a saying that contains a general, observational truth; "a pithy expression
of wisdom or truth". Adage,
proverb,
or saw, a widely-known or
popular aphorism that has gained its credibility by virtue of long use, Apophthegm,
an edgy, more cynical aphorism; such as, 'Men are generally more careful of the
breed of their horses and dogs than of their children, Cliche or bromide,
an unoriginal and overused saying, Platitude,
a cliche unsuccessfully presented as though it were truly meaningful, original,
or effective, Epigram,
a clever and often poetic written saying that
comments on a particular person, idea, or thing, Epitaph,
a saying in honor of a dead person, often engraved on a headstone
or plaque, Epithet,
descriptive word or saying already widely associated with a particular person,
idea, or thing, Idiom,
a non-literal
saying; an expression whose meaning can't be derived simply by hearing it, such
as 'Kick the bucket,
Mantra
– A religious, mystical, or other spiritual saying that is repeated over and
over, for example, in meditation, Maxim or gnome, a instructional
saying about a general principle or rule for behavior; or, simply, an aphorism,
Motto,
a saying used frequently by an individual person or group to concisely state
their general outlook or intentions, Quip,
a clever or funny saying based on an observation and Witticism,
saying that is clever, and also usually funny, notable for its form or style
just as much as (or more than) it’s content.
A
riddle is a statement
or question
or phrase
having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle
to be solved. Riddles are of two types: enigmas, which are problems
generally expressed in metaphorical
or allegorical
language that require ingenuity and careful thinking for their solution, and conundra, which are questions relying for their
effects on punning in either the question or the answer. For example my house
is very small but lives large number of people( means match box), I left my
smooth and nice stick on the footpath( means A snake) and my son cries whenever
he eats( means a radio).
A
proverb, is a simple and
concrete saying,
popularly known and repeated, that expresses a truth based on common sense or
the practical experience of humanity. They are often metaphorical.
A proverb that describes a basic rule of conduct may also be known as a maxim. Proverbs are
often borrowed from similar languages and cultures, and sometimes come down to
the present through more than one language. For example stiff water runs deep,
a friend indeed is a friend in need, and better let than never.
This oral literature
may include terminologies and taxonomies like myth, legend, lyric, poem,
folklore, fables, poetry, orature, orality, proverbs, riddles, idioms and songs
which have functions like skills development, social control, explanations,
entertainment, educating and language development.
REFERENCES
Finnegan,
R. (2012). Oral Literature in Africa. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers.
Ong,
W. (1982). Orality and Literacy: the technologizing of the word. New
York: Methuen
Press.
Vans,
J. ( 1961), Oral Tradition. A Study in Historical Methodology. Chicago
and London:
Aldine
and Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Vansina,
J. (1978). Oral Tradition, Oral History:
Achievements and Perspectives. Milan:
Franco Angeli.
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