What is the role of oral literature in the society?

Oral literature serves to communicate ideas, emotions, beliefs and appreciation of life. This literature defines, interprets, and elaborates on the society’s vision of reality and the dangers in the world. It deals with the human adventure and achievements against odds.

What is the function of oral literature in traditional African societies?

In addition to replicating the past experiences of the society, African oral traditions serve also as mediums to provide self-conscious commentary on the patterns of life in their societies. Another conclusion is that the homology or dialectical unity between oral art and its social function is contextually determined.

Is oral literature relevant in the contemporary society?

Oral literature gives us insight into people, things and events. Oral literature comes in as a core in today’s life setting. It is the repository of the critical knowledge, philosophy, and wisdom for non-literate societies.

How oral literature is a reflection of the society?

Although oral literature can and does co-exist with written literature, its historical context relates to pre-literate societies. It reflects the activities, demands, needs and yearnings of a people in their desire to understand human experiences like birth, death, love, marriage and so on and other natural phenomena.

What are the advantages of oral literature?

Oral tradition helps the historian to determine historical trends and events. Through the comparison of several oral traditions, the historian can eliminate biases, inconsistencies or inaccuracies in the written records they are using, to come out with an accurate historical account of the past.

How does literature influence society?

Literature has had a major impact on the development of society. It has shaped civilisations, changed political systems and exposed injustice. Literature gives us a detailed preview of human experiences, allowing us to connect on basic levels of desire and emotion.

What is the role of traditional oral literature in the development of moral and cultural values of the youth?

Oral literature transmit important cultural and societal values, knowledge and behaviours. Most children grow up hearing folktales from their grandparents or parents and this rich oral tradition is instrumental in shaping their personality in their formative stages of life.

What is the meaning of oral literature?

Oral literature or folk literature is a literature that is spoken or sung as opposed to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as folklorists have varying descriptions for oral literature or folk literature.

What are the functions of oral literature?

– Individual Life Passages – Domestic Family, including assets, domestic animals, swiddens – Longhouse – Village – Sacred Groves – Singing and Music – Myths, Legends, Historical Narratives, and Stories – Miscellaneous Prayers – Word Games

What is the simplest form of oral literature?

What is the simplest form of oral literature? Fairy tales are another favorite oral literary form for Jungian interpretation because they are “the purest and simplest expression of collective unconscious psychic processes,” and they “represent the archetypes in their simplest, barest and most concise form” [Von Franz (134) p.

What are the examples of oral literature?

Folktales. Folktales are virtually universal.

  • Song. Song plays a very general role in oral culture.
  • Folk drama. Theatre in the modern sense is an outcome of the written tradition in Greece,Europe,India,Japan,and elsewhere.
  • What are the three types of oral literature?

    oral literature – oral literature – Oral genres: Beyond the epic, the main oral genres include the folktale; song, including laments, praise songs, and work songs; folk drama; myth; and, closely related, legend and historical recitation.