The Thematic Function of Oral Literature in Birhane Achme’s Wodi Wa-Ero
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Date
2010-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This research aims at examining the role of incorporated oral literature in
Tigrigna historical novel entitled Wodi Wa-ero. The study tries to identify the
importance of the employed forms of oral literature to the theme of the
historical novel. The study has five chapters. The first chapter gives
introductory statements about oral literature and its limited studies. In this
chapter it has been tried to reveal the magnitude of the problem, the purpose,
the significance and the method of the study.
In the second chapter, an attempt has been made to give a theoretical review
and previous studies have been assessed. The concept of oral literature, the
forms, the social significance, and oral literature and African literary works
are the main points discussed in this part. As the historical novel dates back
to the northern Ethiopian colonial era, the historical condition of the time is
briefed in chapter three.
Analysis of various forms of oral literature employed in the novel is made in
chapter four. In here, adequate genres of oral literature that are used in the
novel like naming, proverbs, historic legends, tales and oral poems are taken
and endeavors have been made to analyze and inquire the relevance of their
presence in relation to the dominant themes of the novel. Focusing on
transferring the intended idea, the selected forms of oral literature are
translated into English and the contexts the oral literature used have been
considered in analyzing them. Thus, in the last chapter, the researcher has
arrived at the conclusion that the various forms of oral literature are not put
for their own sake but the author has deliberately employed them to amplify
the issues in the novel and as the result the themes are concretized and
enlarged.
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Oral Literature in Birhane Achme’s Wodi Wa-Ero