"Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas, and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another."
The passing of cultural material and traditions from one generation to the next through spoken word.
Definition of Oral tradition: The study of the transfer of cultural customs, beliefs, and knowledge from one generation to another through verbal transmissions, including storytelling, songs, and rituals.
Definition of Epic: A long narrative poem that celebrates the heroism of a person or group of people, often with religious or cultural significance.
Historical Context: Understanding the social, political, cultural and religious background of the time and place where the epic was created.
Performance and Transmission: How epics are performed and transmitted in different cultures, including the role of the bard, the audience, and the community.
Themes: Major themes explored in epics, such as heroism, loyalty, honor, love, and religion.
Characters: The main characters in epics, their roles, characteristics, and relationships.
Heroes and heroines: The idea of heroism in epic, including the characteristics of heroes and heroines and the qualities they possess.
Archetypes: Symbols or recurring patterns of imagery, motifs, and themes found across different cultures and times.
Structure: The structure of epics, including narrative structure, poetic devices, and rhetorical techniques.
Contextual Interpretation: The interpretation of epics in light of their historical, cultural, and social contexts.
Comparison with other literary genres: Comparing epics with other genres such as drama, fiction, and poetry.
Role of Women: The role of women in epics, including portrayals of female characters, their relationship with male heroes, and their contribution to the epic tradition.
Folklore and mythology: Understanding the role of folklore and mythology in epics, including the use of legends, myths, and folktales as elements of epic narrative.
Digital Humanities: The use of new technologies to study oral traditions and epics, including databases, archives, and digital tools for performance studies.
Reception: The reception of epics in different cultures and times, including the influence of epics on popular culture, literature, and art.
Mythic Heroic Epics: These are ancient stories that recount legendary events, often involving mythological heroes and gods. These epics were typically used to explain the origins of the world and lay out the core beliefs of a culture.
Ballads: Ballads are narrative songs that tell a story in verse form. They were popular in the Middle Ages and often depicted tales of chivalry and romance.
Senepa: A Senepa is an oral poetic form that originated in Tuareg culture. It often features themes of love, death, and honor.
Flyting: Also known as warrior-poetry, Flyting is a tradition in which poets engage in verbal battles using mocking and insulting language.
Lamentation: Lamentation is a type of oral tradition that involves mourning and grieving for the dead through singing, chanting or spoken word.
Chain Verse: Chain Verse is an oral poetic form in which each line or verse is linked to the next by sound.
Epic of the Kings: It is a type of Epic that features royal themes, such as battles and courtly intrigue. It often portrays the life of a ruler or king.
Hwynneu: This is a Welsh oral poetic form that revolves around the themes of love, death, and nature.
Elder Edda: Elder Edda is an orally transmitted collection of Icelandic poems that features Norse mythology and heroic tales.
Rhapsodes: Rhapsodes are storytellers who specialize in reciting epic poetry. They were popular in ancient Greece and Rome, and are still prominent in some cultures today.
"The transmission is through speech or song and may include folktales, ballads, chants, prose or poetry."
"It is possible for a society to transmit oral history, oral literature, oral law, and other knowledge across generations without a writing system, or in parallel to a writing system."
"Religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, and Jainism, for example, have used an oral tradition, in parallel to a writing system, to transmit their canonical scriptures, rituals, hymns, and mythologies."
"Oral tradition is information, memories, and knowledge held in common by a group of people, over many generations; it is not the same as testimony or oral history."
"In a general sense, 'oral tradition' refers to the recall and transmission of a specific, preserved textual and cultural knowledge through vocal utterance."
"The study of oral tradition is distinct from the academic discipline of oral history, which is the recording of personal memories and histories of those who experienced historical eras or events."
"Oral tradition is also distinct from the study of orality, defined as thought and its verbal expression in societies where the technologies of literacy (especially writing and print) are unfamiliar to most of the population."
"A folklore is a type of oral tradition, but knowledge other than folklore has been orally transmitted and thus preserved in human history."
"Knowledge, art, ideas, and cultural material" are transmitted through oral tradition.
"It is possible for a society to transmit oral history, oral literature, oral law, and other knowledge across generations without a writing system, or in parallel to a writing system."
"Religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, and Jainism, for example, have used an oral tradition, in parallel to a writing system, to transmit their canonical scriptures, rituals, hymns, and mythologies."
"Oral tradition is information, memories, and knowledge held in common by a group of people, over many generations; it is not the same as testimony or oral history."
"As an academic discipline, it refers both to a set of objects of study and the method by which they are studied."
"The study of oral tradition is distinct from the academic discipline of oral history, which is the recording of personal memories and histories of those who experienced historical eras or events."
"Oral tradition is also distinct from the study of orality, defined as thought and its verbal expression in societies where the technologies of literacy (especially writing and print) are unfamiliar to most of the population."
"Knowledge other than folklore has been orally transmitted and thus preserved in human history."
"The transmission is through speech or song and may include folktales, ballads, chants, prose or poetry."
"Religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, and Jainism (...) have used an oral tradition, in parallel to a writing system, to transmit their canonical scriptures, rituals, hymns, and mythologies."
"Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas, and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another."