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.

Product details

• Authors: John Miles (EDT) Foley
• Assisted by: John Miles Foley (Editor)
• Publisher: Modern Language Assn Of Amer
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.10.1998
• EAN: 9780873523707
• ISBN: 978-0-87352-370-7
• No. of pages: 540
• Dimensions: 165 mm x 241 mm x 32 mm
• Series: Options for Teaching (Numbered; Options for Teaching
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Education > School education, didactics, methodology