I think from very early on, human beings have been storytellers in one form or another. They told stories of their lives, they created stories to explain the natural phenomena around them, and they created stories of heroes and heroines. To be human is to imagine, and to be human is to create a narrative of one's world and one's life. Before they had writing, humans told stories in the form of pictures, for example,...
I think from very early on, human beings have been storytellers in one form or another. They told stories of their lives, they created stories to explain the natural phenomena around them, and they created stories of heroes and heroines. To be human is to imagine, and to be human is to create a narrative of one's world and one's life. Before they had writing, humans told stories in the form of pictures, for example, in cave paintings, and probably in rhyme, since the rhythm of poetry made it easier to remember a story. Once people acquired writing, they used writing to keep records, certainly, but they also used writing to tell their stories. The oldest writings in the world that we know of are from the Middle East and go back to approximately 2600 BC. These include poetry and stories. It is possible that there is earlier written literature, but none has been found so far. So, the origins of literature are to some degree lost in the mists of time, but we do know that people have been telling stories from their earliest days and will continue to do so as long as humans exist as a species.
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