Skip to main content
Open Book Publishers

Concluding comment

  • Ruth Finnegan (author)
Chapter of: Oral Poetry(pp. 345–348)

Export Metadata

  • ONIX 3.1
  • ONIX 3.0
    • Thoth
    • Project MUSE
      Cannot generate record: No BIC or BISAC subject code
    • OAPEN
    • JSTOR
      Cannot generate record: No BISAC subject code
    • Google Books
      Cannot generate record: No BIC, BISAC or LCC subject code
    • OverDrive
      Cannot generate record: No priced EPUB or PDF URL
  • ONIX 2.1
  • CSV
  • JSON
  • OCLC KBART
  • BibTeX
  • CrossRef DOI deposit
    Cannot generate record: This work does not have any ISBNs
  • MARC 21 Record
    Cannot generate record: MARC records are not available for chapters
  • MARC 21 Markup
    Cannot generate record: MARC records are not available for chapters
  • MARC 21 XML
    Cannot generate record: MARC records are not available for chapters
Metadata
TitleConcluding comment
ContributorRuth Finnegan (author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0428.09
Landing pagehttps://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0428/chapters/10.11647/obp.0428.09
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
CopyrightRuth Finnegan;
PublisherOpen Book Publishers
Published on2025-05-28
Long abstractIn the concluding comments of this book, the author refrains from offering a singular theoretical model, instead emphasizing the book's aim to provide a foundational guide to the study of oral poetry and its associated debates. A central theme throughout is the rejection of a rigid divide between oral and written literature. While the distinction exists, it is better understood as a continuum, rather than a fundamental chasm. The continued existence and vitality of oral poetry, even in highly literate and industrial societies, challenges the notion that oral traditions belong solely to non-literate or "traditional" cultures. Furthermore, the author stresses that literature is a reflection of human action and creativity, rather than a passive product of social structures or abstract literary laws. Oral poetry, like written forms, is shaped by individual choice, context, and creativity. It not only reflects the world but actively shapes it, providing individuals and communities with a way to create, interpret, and express their experiences. This view repositions poetry as a dynamic, socially embedded practice, which, through its rich symbolic and imaginative power, helps to construct the very world in which people live. Ultimately, the hope is that readers are inspired to explore the vast world of oral poetry with greater depth and awareness, recognizing its enduring significance across cultures and histories.
Page rangepp. 345–348
Print length4 pages
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Contributors

Ruth Finnegan

(author)
Fellow at British Academy
Honorary Fellow of Somerville College at University of Oxford

Ruth Finnegan FBA OBE was born in 1933 in the beautiful fraught once-island city of Derry, Northern Ireland, and brought up there, together with several magical years during the war in Donegal. She had her education at the little Ballymore First School in County Donegal, Londonderry High School, Mount (Quaker) School York, then first class honours in Classics (Literae humaniores) and a doctorate in Anthropology at Oxford. This was followed by fieldwork and university teaching in Africa, principally Sierra Leone and Nigeria. She then joined the pioneering Open University as a founding member of the academic staff, where she spent the rest of her career apart from three years – and more fieldwork – at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, and is now, proudly, an Open University Emeritus Professor. She was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1996, and is also an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford. Ruth has published two books with OBP, Why Do We Quote? The Culture and History of Quotation (2011), https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0012, and Oral Literature in Africa (2012), https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0025.