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How oral is oral literature?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Ruth Finnegan
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Extract

The study of oral literature is among the many areas to which Wilfred Whiteley made an important contribution. He was one of the founder editors of the extensive ‘Oxford Library of African Literature’, and played an essential part in both the development of the study of African oral literature and the maintenance of scholarly standards through generous encouragement and informed advice to colleagues and students working in this area. His primary interest was in Africa but, with his background in Classical studies and his continuing co-operatioii with American folklorists, he also took a wide comparative approach to oral literature. It is appropriate therefore to devote this paper, in a volume in his memory, to some comments on one aspect of oral literature viewed in a comparative context.

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Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , February 1974 , pp. 52 - 64
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1974

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References

1 At any rate, I am not intending to argue the point here.

2 There is not space to illustrate the statement fully here, but some examples can be found in one form or another in, e.g., Leach, M. and Coffin, T. P. (ed.), The critics and the ballad, Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Press, 1961, esp. p. 7Google Scholar; Buchan, D., The ballad and the folk, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972, esp. ch. iiiGoogle Scholar.

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38 As distinct from plots or motifs (which, in themselves, do not constitute a piece of literature) or perhaps particular styles or genres.

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