Saturday, August 30, 2014

What is the effect of orality on Song of Lawino by p'Bitek?How does the Song of Lawino show the stylistic hallmarks of oral-formulaic composition?

"Song of Lawino" shares with most oral epic the large
scale form of an extended narrative poem. It is not an example of oral traditional epic,
in that it was composed by an single individual about a subject contemporary to that
writer rather than looking back to an heroic age. It does, however, borrow some of the
stylistic surface feature of oral poetry. It is composed in a simple rhythmic structure
appropriate for public performance, uses repeated epithets, invokes stereotypes, and is
structured agglutinatively, creating effects not by subordination and analysis but by
piling on layers of detail. Also like most oral poetry, it is close to the human life
world and makes its point via striking example rather than
abstraction.

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