Oral literature corresponds in the sphere of the spoken (oral) word to
literature as literature operates in the domain of the
written word. It thus forms a generally more fundamental component of
culture, but operates in many ways as one might expect literature to do. The
Ugandan scholar Pio Zirimu introduced the term orature in an attempt to avoid an
oxymoron, but oral literature remains more common both in academic and popular writing.
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