ABSTRACT
Studying literature without attending to pre-literature is a bit like studying the current makeup of diabetes or high blood pressure without attending to that disease’s etiology, to its origins or causes. Robert Scholes and Robert Kellogg lamented almost 40 years ago the modern culture’s “novel-centered view of narrative literature.” As Merlin Donald said in 1991—and, sadly, what he said still applies today in spite of his ambition to rectify the situation—“Cognitive science often carries on as though humans had no culture, no significant variability, and no history.” Ignoring orality does not make the people more ethical as thinkers. In fact, in the author mind, ignoring orality is comparable to turning a blind eye to the millions who are today without clean water, electricity, or sufficient food, in order to satisfy projection of the world as technologically advanced, globalized, and even post-human.
