Oral literature

Oral literature comprises stories, poems, songs, and other verbal works composed and transmitted primarily through speech. Its forms often change through performance and retelling.

Oral tradition: The transmission of cultural knowledge and practices across generations through speech, performance, and other nonwritten means. Oral literature is one creative strand within this broader mode of cultural transmission.
Homeric epics: The ancient Greek epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, traditionally attributed to Homer. Their language and composition are central evidence in debates about oral epic.
Brothers Grimm: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German scholars known for collecting and publishing folktales. Their editions made collected oral narratives widely available while reshaping them for print.
Written literature: Literary works composed or primarily transmitted in written form. Its comparatively fixed texts contrast with oral works shaped anew in performance.
Oral-formulaic theory: A theory that oral poets compose in performance using recurring formulas and traditional themes. It explains how performers can create extended verse without memorizing every line verbatim.
Epic of Sundiata: A West African epic recounting the life and founding legacy of Sundiata Keita. Its performances by griots demonstrate how history and artistry coexist in oral epic.
Milman Parry: An American classicist whose research helped establish oral-formulaic analysis of Homeric poetry. His fieldwork and comparison of epic diction changed explanations of Homeric composition.
Literacy: The ability to read and write within a language or system of communication. Oral literary traditions can flourish independently of widespread literacy.
Formula (oral poetry): A recurring phrase or metrical expression used in traditional oral poetry. Repeated phrases help performers recall and shape lines during composition.
Dara Shikoh's oral tradition: REMOVE REMOVE

Linked from 23 pages