orature

[ awr-uh-cher, or- ]

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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of orature¹

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