Oral/Aural vs. Literary Experiences

Oral/Aural vs. Literary Experiences

The different in Oral and Literary experiences is that oral experiences are meant to be shared in a group setting, such as a king’s court or around the fire in a peasants’ hut while literary experiences are almost always a solitary pastime. Most of the pieces of literature we have read this semester were originally intended to be shared orally. The rhyme and rhythm of pieces like Lanval, Beowulf, and Caedmon’s Hymn are meant for oral telling, sort of a bedtime story for burly knights. By the time the reader arrive at Eloisa to Abelard or A Modest Proposal the literature has lost many of it’s rhythmic features and though it could be read aloud for an audience it was more likely meant to be for solitary reading.