What is oral literature

Oral literature is a term generally applied to spoken literary traditions such as folk tales, musical theater, proverbs, riddles, life histories, plays, proverbs, epic poems and historical recitations. Unlike written literary genres, oral literature is conveyed or passed down to future generations by word of mouth, typically through memorization and recitation.

Oral literature creates a generally more fundamental component of culture, but operates in many ways as one might expect literature to do.