orature

American  

[awr-uh-cher, or-] / ˈɔr ə tʃər, ˈɒr- /

noun

1. oral literature; stories, poems, histories, etc., shared only or primarily in spoken form, especially in an exclusively oral culture.

   Consider the trickster Anansi of Akan orature—the spider who was a man, the man who was a spider.

   This thesis examines the impact of orature on the works of four Indigenous women writers.

---

Etymology

Origin of orature

First recorded in 1975–80; or(al) ( def. ) + (liter)ature ( def. )