Research Paper African Folklore Essay Example

Research Paper African Folklore Essay Example Research Paper African Folklore Essay Research Paper African Folklore Essay Children wonder about the aspects of life and one of the best methods that is used to answer their young minds is literature. Children’s literature has is a new genre that has been growing vastly over the years. Like most genres there is no single or widely used definition.In this research, knowledge of Africa’s folklore and folktale will be discussed. Africa is a rich continent that has a strong history of producing folklore is Africa. Africa is the second largest continent in the world, and is the home to millions of folklores. Like other types of literature, African folklore started by oral tradition. Oral tradition was a part of everyday life for many Africans. Storytellers help capture time and the main idea of important facts. The art of storytelling is to capture the past and to give listeners an idea of why something is. Oral traditions have been the most influential factor of African folklore. The linkage between oral tradition and the written works are necessary for being able to understand the actual literary work. Just like the oral tradition written literature is a combination of real and some false events that may be believed as real.It combines, on one hand, real facts (contemporary world) and history (realistic world of the past) and, on the other, myth and hero, with metaphor being the agent of transformation. Myths are normally an emotional feature that involves the gods and creation, with the essence of a belief system. It is often descried as the driving force of a people, that emotional force that defines people. Typically, the image perceived of African literature is a combination of myth and history. The history that was once just told orally are now recorded and are known as folklore. According to Brian Sutton-Smith, â€Å"In earlier definitions, attention was given predominantly to traditional stories, dances, proverbs, riddles, poetry, material culture, and customs, passed on orally from generation to g