what is Palauan literature?
Palau is an archipelago settled approx. 3,000 years ago. With its current population of less than 20,000, it is a mixture of various Micronesian, Melanesian and Austronesian ethnicities; concomitantly with Palauan and English, several other languages are spoken. The islands found their place on the European map in quite a unique way, since the notice was due to the castaways from a Palauan shipwreck, who arrived at the coast of the Philippines, and not to any European "discovery". All along the colonial period, the islands changed hands, as a part of Spanish East Indies, sold to Germany in 1899 to become a part of German New Guinea. After ww1, it became a part of the Japanese mandate; after ww2, in 1947, a part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands governed by the Americans. The archipelago regained full sovereignty in 1994.
Palauan literature is rich in oral tradition and performative genres, such as cheldecheduch (story or tale, which is nonetheless enriched with music and usually produced as an audio, a CD rather than book), chelitakl (song), ngloik (dance, once again, if I understand it correctly, transmitting some sort of narrative content). In any case, among the literature recorded by the means of writing, poetry is the predominant genre.
On the other hand, in the domain of narration, perhaps the early anthropological studies, such as Being a Palauan (1960), by H.G. Barnett, might be considered as a specific genre of writing serving as an expression of the local reality. There are also quite unique books, such as Words of the Lagoon (1981), an account written by a marine biologist R.E. Johannes, striving to record and preserve the knowledge of the native fishermen of Palau.
Palauan literature is rich in oral tradition and performative genres, such as cheldecheduch (story or tale, which is nonetheless enriched with music and usually produced as an audio, a CD rather than book), chelitakl (song), ngloik (dance, once again, if I understand it correctly, transmitting some sort of narrative content). In any case, among the literature recorded by the means of writing, poetry is the predominant genre.
On the other hand, in the domain of narration, perhaps the early anthropological studies, such as Being a Palauan (1960), by H.G. Barnett, might be considered as a specific genre of writing serving as an expression of the local reality. There are also quite unique books, such as Words of the Lagoon (1981), an account written by a marine biologist R.E. Johannes, striving to record and preserve the knowledge of the native fishermen of Palau.
I have read... nothing ...
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