Does African literature exist?
African Literature Doesn’t Exist. By “African literature,” I refer not to the body of written and oral texts produced by storytellers on and from the continent—but rather, to the category.
What are the features of traditional African literature?
Characteristics of African literature include slave narratives, protests against colonization, calls for independence, African pride, hope for the future, and dissent.
What is African oral literature?
Oral literature (or orature) is often sung or recited, by bards or griots (West African praise-singers, poets or musicians) and can take the form of songs, with tongue-twisters, recitations, poetry, proverbs and riddles. Manners, customs, superstitions, ballads, proverbs, etc.
What is the origin of oral literature?
The term oral literature originates from here; at the early stage of human history, all literary works were preserved by oral tradition. As writing systems were invented and literacy replaced orality, such oral literature was also written down as fixed texts.
What are the types of African literature?
There are 4 different types of African Literature: Oral Literature, Precolonial African Literature, Colonial African Literature, and Postcolonial Literature.
What are the major forms of oral literature?
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. There are also the minor genres of the proverb and the riddle.
Is oral tradition literature?
Oral tradition is information passed down through the generations by word of mouth that is not written down. This includes historical and cultural traditions, literature and law. Explore some oral tradition examples like legends, proverbs, folktales, and customs.
What are the significance of oral literature?
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.
What is the function of oral literature in traditional African societies?
One of the major functions of oral literature is to teach. In the traditional society, oral literature was the main tool of education and social propriety. However, oral literature does not teach directly. It teaches suggestively through allusion.
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 is the difference between African literature and Philippine Literature?
Pre-Hispanic Philippine literature were actually epics passed on from generation to generation originally through oral tradition while African literature, literary works of the African continent.
How reliable is oral tradition?
Oral sources are no more or less inherently reliable than written ones, they simply need to be understood and used differently than someone might be used to. TL;DR – Oral tradition is no more or less reliable than written material, simply different.
What are the famous literature in Africa?
African Literature Books
- Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1) Chinua Achebe.
- Half of a Yellow Sun (Hardcover) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
- Americanah (Hardcover) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
- Purple Hibiscus (Paperback)
- Homegoing (Hardcover)
- The Thing Around Your Neck (Hardcover)
- So Long a Letter (Paperback)
- Disgrace (Paperback)
What are the three forms of oral literature?
There are several modern works on oral literature, but they do not distinguish one from the others among three forms of oral literature: the everyday orality (a), orality in the folklore (b), and the professional orality (c) (where official historic narratives, sacred texts or literature exist, from the time before the …
What are the famous masterpieces in African literature?
Masterpieces Of African Literature Books
- The Thing Around Your Neck (Hardcover) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
- Open City (Hardcover) Teju Cole.
- The Famished Road (Paperback) Ben Okri.
- Master Harold…and the boys (Paperback)
- A Man of the People (Paperback)
- Men of the South (Paperback)
- Half of a Yellow Sun (Hardcover)
- Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali (Paperback)
What is traditional African literature?
African literature, the body of traditional oral and written literatures in Afro-Asiatic and African languages together with works written by Africans in European languages. …
What is the modern African literature?
Modern African literature is written in indigenous African languages and in European languages used in Africa. Written African literature is very new compared to the indigenous oral tradition of literature which has been there and is still very much alive.