American Literature / Unit 3 AML 0202 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Oral Tradition: Literature Before Writing
Captions available
The idea
The continent's oldest literature was spoken, not written, and survives because outsiders wrote it down centuries later. The witness cautions that these texts reach us with omissions and mediations, that they were performed rather than recited, and that thousands of distinct peoples cannot be represented by any anthology's handful.
In practice
Performed, then transcribed by strangers.
Where people slip
No selection speaks for Native literature entire.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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