Abstract:
This study attempts a classification of the poetics in Idoma oral performances through the analysis of the different components that constitute the oral poetry genre of Idoma oral literature. It defines and explains the various units of the taxonomy, it describes its main facets or dimensions, and it also offers detailed explanations of the context and content of performance of all the components of the classification for purposes of communicating meaning. The study further highlights the functions of oral performances among the people such as entertainment, awareness, socialization, language skills, political as well as religious-cultural values within the context of the present study through the theoretical lens of Greenblatt’s New Historicism.