Small Languages and Storytelling

Thanks for your comments on storytelling. I too have been wondering if and how the storytelling workshops could have some continuing impact in the country. In fact, I have been wondering how the workshops could have any impact at all.

Recently I read a quote that said, “You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.” The quote is attributed to Lee Iacocca, former chairman of the Chrysler Corporation. While I don’t particularly like the philosophy and habits of Iacocca, what he says is relevant to my foray into storytelling.

I have tried to get my ideas across about storytelling for the small languages of PNG and the Pacific, but feel that I have only been partially successful. This seems evident from your response, as well as from the earlier talk I had with you and Brian.  It may be that my ideas about storytelling for small language groups (I always specify “small”) are too marginal for current Branch strategy.

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Introduction

In this session, we will look at stories to find out what is prototypical about them and discuss research methods that deal with them. Because they are narratives, they have linguistic structure (phonemes, lexemes, morphemes, syntax, and semantics) and occur within cultural settings (pragmatics) and scenes. A storyteller draws on these features and more (e.g. non-verbal ones) to present and perform his/her story. As cultural outsiders we have an etic understanding of story features that allow us to examine and analyze them. Cultural insiders will have an emic view of the story based on their experiences in the world around them. When they tell a story they use the shared background knowledge of the audience.  If the audience is not a part of the cultural setting, it will have an etic, i.e. an outsider’s arrangement and interpretation of the story. Etic and emic are cultural perspectives that we need in order to understand a story.[1]

We will discuss research methods as they apply to story structure, noting initially that story research methodology is simply good ethnology (in particular, participant observation[2]). Part of the process of story gathering in an oral community involves recording genealogies and family histories so that we can know the storytellers and their relationships in the cultural scene.  We examine story performance by spending time with storytellers as part of their audience. In so doing there are a number of assumptions that hold.

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Storytelling—A Beginning Glossary

Introduction

During the past few years, as I have read and written about storytelling, I have indexed a number of words or phrases that are important and definitive for the subject.  This collection is a starting point that organizes some of those terms.  In most cases I have applied them to storytelling, but I do not claim that my attempt is more than a beginning reference guide.

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The following annotations provide information on sources that have been helpful in writing this book and in my general research on storytelling.

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Some web resources to note*:

http://www.storynet.org/ [… a non-profit member driven organization dedicated to advancing the art of storytelling – as performing art, teaching aid, and cultural transformation process….”]

http://www.storytellingcenter.net/ [“The International Storytelling Center is dedicated to improving the lives of people around the world through the power of storytelling.

The InternationalStorytellingCenter inspires and empowers people around the world to capture and tell their stories, listen to the stories of others, and use storytelling to produce positive change. For, through the power of storytelling, we can build a better world—healthier communities, more effective workplaces and schools of learning, and enriched human life.”]

http://www.healingstory.org/ [“Our purpose is to explore and promote the use of storytelling in healing. Our goal for this special interest group is to share our experience and our skills, to increase our knowledge of stories and our knowledge of the best ways to use stories to inform, inspire, nurture and heal. We also wish to reach beyond our storytelling community to share with those in other service professions; therapists, clergy, health care practitioners of all kinds, anyone who can see the benefit of story as a tool for healing.”]

http://www.timeslips.org [“The Time Slips Project has generated hundreds of stories, produced plays and art exhibits, and rekindled the hope for human connection among people struggling with Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementia.”]

http://www.motherslivingstories.org/ [“a pilot project that brings attention, compassion, support in parenting, and dignity to mothers who have breast cancer by helping them record their life stories and personal legacies.”]

http://www.poetrytherapy.org [“As poetry therapists, we use all forms of literature and the language arts, and we are united by our love of the word, and our passion for enhancing the lives of others and ourselves.”]

http://www.storywise.com [“The Center for Narrative Studies (CNS) Washington DC is a multi-disciplinary team dedicated to applying narrative theory to the practical renewal of leadership in culture and communities.”]

http://www.stevedenning.com/WallStJournalArticles.html [“the website for business and organizational storytelling.”] (Two articles mentioned in the Wall Street Journal on organizational storytelling.)

http://www.aaronshep.com/storytelling/index.html [“Here are free resources for storytelling (or story telling)—including the acclaimed series Gifts of Story—all from children’s author Aaron Shepard. (For additional stories, see Aaron’s Storybook.) Enjoy the magic of story!”]

[Karl Franklin, 2008]