Surinamese literature refers to the literature which is considered to belong to both the

oral traditions Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985), reporte ...

as well as Surinamese written literature or people born or strongly-affiliated with

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

. Much modern literature is written in the

Dutch language Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and is the List of languages by total number of speak ...

although other languages of Suriname are also used. The

oral literature Oral literature, orature, or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung in contrast to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used v ...

is still a vital and authentic expression in Surinamese culture. In turn, the influence of the oral culture on the written literature of Suriname is impossible to imagine. At the end of the 18th century, the indigenous Surinamese began to write literature. Surinamese Creole literature in particular is "not widely known, nor easily accessible."

References

{{South American topic, , literature South American literature Dutch-language literature

See also

References