Style and performance

This chapter explores the intricate interplay between style and performance in oral poetry, emphasizing that both aspects are inseparable and essential for a complete understanding of this art form. While literary scholars have traditionally focused on style and sociologists on performance, this chapter argues that neither can be fully appreciated without considering the other. The study of style involves the recognition of social conventions that shape artistic expression, highlighting the constraints and freedoms oral poets face within these conventions. Style encompasses formal structures, verbal techniques, and prosodic systems like metre, alliteration, assonance, and rhythm, which define the oral tradition's distinctiveness.
Performance, in turn, is central to the oral tradition, where the mode of delivery—whether sung, chanted, or spoken—adds layers of meaning and engagement for the audience. The chapter addresses how rhythmic movement, repetition, and audience participation are integral to performance and how they help differentiate oral poetry from written forms. The overlap between style and performance underscores the creative process in oral literature, where poets work within traditional frameworks while often innovating to captivate their audience through both verbal and performative artistry.