Dear Indology mind-hive,

 

I have an undergraduate student who is interested in writing a paper on questions of oral and literary traditions. I would like to solicit your opinions on potential sources for her. Please see her message below for a more detailed delineation of her questioning.

 

Many thanks in advance!

Mark

 

 

Professor McLaughlin,

 

I read through a little more of the Pollock book last night to get a better feel for some questions. I think generally this is what I'm thinking: 

 

What is the difference and relationship between the oral and literary tradition? How has that relationship evolved with the emergence of written texts, vernacularization, and the subsequent privileging of textual sources by the colonial West and the Academy? Who is excluded and/or included by the privileging of one kind of knowledge over the other? For scholars, what kind of nuanced understanding of literacy should be sought or acknowledged given that "to be literate" can mean different things in different cultures? 

 

Let me know if this sounds like what I was talking about the other day! 

 

Best,

Emma

--

Mark McLaughlin
Visiting Assistant Professor of South Asian Religions
Department of Religious Studies
College of William and Mary
Williamsburg, VA

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