Native/American Digital Storytelling: Situating the Cherokee Oral Tradition within American Literary History

Abstract

Abstract This article utilizes digital video of the Cherokee storyteller Freeman Owle and Flash presentation of historic maps to explore how digital technology can be employed to situate Native American oral storytelling in relation to American literary history more accurately and effectively. The goal of this analysis is to expand the definition of “literature” beyond the narrow margins of the white page and to free “American literary history” from the constrictive confines of a chronological timeline that begins with European colonization. In doing so, the exegesis seeks to encourage Americanists to rethink the temporal borders of the field and to recognize thousands of years of Native American literature that have been previously overlooked by literary scholars.