orature

plural oratures

1. countableuncountableThe oral equivalent of literature: a collection of traditional folk songs, stories, etc., that is communicated orally rather than in writing.First known use 1970s

   It is because of this that Mr Pio Zirimu, a Ugandan linguist and literary critic, has coined the word ‘orature’.

   [1972, Wa Thiong’o [i.e., Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o], Homecoming: Essays on African and Caribbean Literature, Culture and Politics, London; Ibadan, Nigeria: Heinemann, →OCLC, page 70

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   The decolonization of the African mind and imaginagion is a job that must be done. It is a job that requires that our perceptions, our imaginations, and our literary devices be fertilized by the past literatures and oratures of the Pan-African world, and by the literatures and oratures of other lands besides Europe.

   1978, Okike: An African Journal of New Writing, Enugu, Nigeria: Okike Magazine, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1

   As it were, Literature is often seen as a branch of Language Arts. Orature is a branch of Literature and hence inevitably falls within Language especially in as far as Language is basically oral. […] Inevitably, a good stock of the words within Orature are taken from written Literature. The text hopes to establish the interrelationship of these branches of Literature and through definition to show the specific application of these terms in Orature.

   1990, Leteipa Ole Sunkuli, Simon Okumba Miruka, “Introduction”, in A Dictionary of Oral Literature, Nairobi, Kenya; Kampala, Uganda: East African Educational Publishers, published 2008, →ISBN, page ix

   In the chapter on Aidoo, I note that certain genres of the orature, particularly the dilemma tales, have unresolved endings which call for community response; this is evident in the ending of Song as well.

   1992, Gay [Alden] Wilentz, Binding Cultures: Black Women Writers in Africa and the Diaspora (Blacks in the Diaspora), Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, →ISBN

   There is much at work in this discussion of canon and orature. As a starting point, it is worth noting that the academic discipline of English developed in the colonial era, and it should be equally patent that Eurocentric attempts to define a canon since the 19th century have been "less a statement of the superiority of the Western tradition than a vital, active instrument of Western hegemony." Limiting consideration or admission to the canon to orature is a way of continuing colonialism. It once again keeps American Indians from entering the 20th century and denies to Native literary artists who choose other media any legitimate or "authentic" Native identity.

   1997, Jace Weaver, “Native American Literatures and Communitism”, in That the People Might Live: Native American Literatures and Native American Community, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 23

   Blue Marrow by the Cree poet Louise Bernice Halfe has an intriguing textual history. […] Of the changes made to the revised edition, the completely rewritten narrative frame is particularly interesting, especially given the relevance of opening and closing frames in Aboriginal oratures and in oral traditions around the world more generally[…].

   2012, Mareike Neuhaus, “What’s in a Frame?: The Significance of Relational World Bundles in Louise Bernice Halfe’s Blue Marrow”, in Susan Gingell, Wendy Roy, editors, Listening Up, Writing Down, and Looking Beyond: Interfaces of the Oral, Written, and Visual, Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, →ISBN, page 221

   Synonyms: oral literature

plural oratures

1. ScotlandalternativearchaicChristianityVariant of oratour (“a small room or chapel used for prayer and worship, or for private study; an oratory”).

   Yet nertheleſſe within mine orature / I ſtode, whan Titan had his bemis bright / Withdrawin doun, and ſcylid undir cure, / And faire Venus the beaute of the night, / Upraiſe, and ſette unto the weſte ful right […]

   1793, [Robert Henryson], “[Troilus & Creseide.] Testament of Faire Creseide.”, in The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, [...] To which is Prefixed the Life of the Author, Edinburgh: Printed by Mundell and Son, […], →OCLC; republished in Robert Anderson, editor, A Complete Edition of the Poets of Great Britain, volume I (Containing Chaucer, Surrey, Wyatt & Sackville), London: Printed for Iohn & Arthur Arch, […]; and for Bell & Bradfute & I. Mundell & Co. […], 1795, →OCLC, page 409

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   This bishop was ane wyse and godlie man, and answered the king in this maner, as after follows, saying, “Sir, I beseech your Grace, that ye take a little meat to refresh you, and I will passe to my orature and pray to God for you, and the commonwealth of this realme and cuntrie.[”]

   16th century, Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, edited by John Graham Dalyell, The Cronicles of Scotland, … Published from Several Old Manuscripts, volume I, Edinburgh: Printed by George Ramsay and Company, for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, published 1814, →OCLC, footnote, page 128

   The author [of the poem Testament of Faire Creseide, Robert Henryson] has conceived in a very poetical manner his description of the season in which he supposes himself to have written this dolorous tragedy. The sun was in Aries; his setting was ushered in with furious storms of hail; the cold was biting and intense; and the poet sat in a solitary little building which he calls his "orature." [footnote: oratory.]

   1804, William Godwin, “Sequel to Troilus and Creseide by Robert Henryson.—Tragedy of Shakepear on the Subject.”, in Life of Geoffrey Chaucer, the Early English Poet: […] In Four Volumes, 2nd edition, volume I, London: Printed by T[homas] Davison, […]; for Richard Phillips, […], →OCLC, pages 489–490