In someculturesnearly everyone can carry on these traditions, but some men and women are much more skillful than others and are listened to with greater pleasure. Whatever the nature of these tradition bearers, the continued existence of an item of oral literature depends upon memory. As it is...
Epic folk singing, once widespread throughout Europe and in western and southern Asia, had three main European traditions that persisted in the 20th century: Russian, Finnish, and Balkan. The Russian and Ukrainian epic traditions include ornamented singing, often improvised, in which refrains were ...
one of great complexity and not a matter of simple evolution. Modern African literatures were born in the educational systems imposed by colonialism, with models drawn from Europe rather than existing African traditions. But the African oral traditions exerted their own influence on these literatures....