Oral literature, fictitious orality

Abstract

Within the framework of the conceptions of orality and writing prevalent in Latin American cultural practice, the author attempts an approach to the relationship between the contradictory notion of ‘oral literature’ and the redundant notion of ‘written literature’, that is, between orality as a real communication phenomenon, when it occurs as verbal creation, and the fiction of orality found in literary writing. In this case, what one really discovers is an effort to establish a dialog with what has been omitted by the literary establishment and cultural standards. Along these lines, literary texts not only incorporate forms and structures proper of oral texts, but in some paradigmatic cases a true link with a deep cultural orality is found.