DEFINITION AND FEATURES OF FOLK LITERATURE

Abstract

Folk literature is one of the major branch of folklore as mentioned above. Oral literature is another term used to denote the same.  Although, the term ‘literature’ is often considered paradoxical to be attached with ‘folk’ as the word ‘literature’ means ‘written works such as poems, plays and novels’. While the folk literature is transmitted orally and that’s why the prefix ‘oral’ is attached with it. “Ugandan scholar Pio Zirimu introduced the term orature in an attempt to avoid an oxymoron, but oral literatureremains more common both in academic and popular writing”. (Auger 210) The term, anyhow, didn’t get popular and ‘folk literature’ and ‘oral literature’ are unanimously used in folkloristic.