Teaching Oral Traditions

Research is beginning to unearth the astounding wealth of oral traditions that have served as a vital cultural activity and verbal art for peoples throughout the world, from antiquity to the present. In this volume of the MLA series Options for Teaching, forty-two scholar-teachers bring these discoveries and rediscoveries from the scholarly forum to the classroom.Part 1, Canon or Cornucopia?, provides an introduction to the nature and scope of oral traditions; part 2, Critical Approaches, presents menu of useful methods for studying them; part 3, Praxis: Oral Traditions in the Classroom, gives twenty-five brief tutorials on commonly taught works and areas; and part 4, Courses, Readings, and Resources, offers teachers pedagogical examples and audiovisual resources.Among the subjects discussed are the unwritten roots of the Bible; the genesis and art of the Homeric poems; Native American traditions, like the Zuni Deer Boy tale and the Quechua proverb Corn-Planting Day; the oral traditions behind Beowulf and behind the Canterbury Tales; the professional entertainers (jongleurs) of medieval France; Icelandic sagas; and more.