ABSTRACT
I want in this last chapter to set the stage for the next chapter—that is, for the sequel to this book, which, as you know by now, is titled After Literature. I’m not proclaiming this for marketing purposes, however much that might appear to be the case. Rather, it’s because Before Literature is only half the story. It’s the preliteracy story, accounting for what narrative was and had (and still has) to be when the epistemic and psychodynamic forces bound up with the written word have not yet intruded. It’s also a story that I don’t think has gotten sufficiently told, despite the clarity that it brings to the world of literature.
