On <em>A Multimodal Perspective on Applied Storytelling Performance: Narrativity in Context</em>

Abstract

Storytelling, Self, Society, Vol. 16, No. 1 (2020), pp. 143–147. Copyright © 2020 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI 48201 B O O K R E V I E W On A Multimodal Perspective on Applied Storytelling Performance: Narrativity in Context Kaitlin Cannava A Multimodal Perspective on Applied Storytelling Performance: Narrativity in Context by Soe Marlar Lwin. Routledge, 2020. ISBN 978-1-138-481657 . $155.00 Cloth, $57.95 Electronic. Summary A Multimodal Perspective on Applied Storytelling Performance: Narrativity in Context by Lwin (2020) proposes a new framework that details the various forms of narrativity within a live storytelling performance. It does so by effectively combining the elements of process and content of a storytelling performance. Lwin unites performance features and narrative content in order to analyze the emerging narrative structure by examining multiple live applied storytelling performances. Lwin focuses on the story, the storytelling discourse, and the storytelling event, which are the key elements in the proposed multimodal framework in an applied storytelling performance. The ability to account for the various components of storytelling has a long and important research history and has held the attention of many practitioners and scholars. Teasing apart the 144 n On A Multimodal Perspective on Applied Storytelling Performance structural nuances and accounting for and interpreting the content of a storytelling performance is the main focus of Lwin’s book, which she approaches in a careful and fastidious manner. In the application of multimodal framework, Lwin uses two applied storytelling performances: “Pyjama Night,” which is told to schoolchildren during a celebration called Racial Harmony Day, and “Dog Barks and Rooster Crows,” which is told to a mixed-age audience during a program designed to showcase the skill and talent of storytelling called Storytellers’ Showcase. During these two applications, Lwin analyzes the story, the storytelling discourse, and the storytelling event. To analyze the story, she explains the applied aspect of the performance (i.e., the institutional purpose and setting). To analyze the storytelling discourse, she examines how the storyteller and audience interact with one another during different levels of engagement. She also analyzes the story elements (abstract, orientation, main action, resolution, coda) while describing the vocal and visual features that help constitute the main story elements. Last, to examine the storytelling event, Lwin combines the forms, functions, and situations of each performance to analyze the compatibility, efficacy, and appropriateness of these elements during a performance. Within her analyses the author describes the elements of the story and its narrative potential. Relying on elements from the story (Kloepfer), narrative structures (Labov and Watezky), and multimodal performance features (Bauman , “Introduction”; Cassell and McNeil), Lwin examines each storytelling performance and the strategies used for a successful telling process. The author examines how the content of the story, which appears in a specific narrative sequence, is accompanied by a range of multimodal features (e.g., gestures, pitch, tone). Finally, Lwin incorporates how these elements collaborate with the overall performance event. These disparate features all come together to deliver the efficacy and appropriateness of the performance. The author remarkably and elegantly combines these features to elucidate the complexities of narrativity within an applied storytelling performance. Other scholars typically focus on one of these storytelling elements in order to shed light on cultural values (Polanyi; Bauman, World of Others’ Words), interpersonal relationships (Planalp and Garvin-Doxas), genres of talk (Jefferson), identity (Eckert), or emotions (Rimé). Lwin argues that by understanding the context of storytelling along with recognizing the various features of the telling, scholars and practitioners can exploit the receptiveness of the audience to the Cannava n 145 unfolding story and assist in the understanding of narrative structures and elements (124). The final chapter of this book is particularly interesting and showcases the possible alternative applications and trajectories to which the multimodal framework can be applied. In particular, the use of computerized software to determine the (in)authenticity of a performance versus printed versions of the same story provides a promising application of how certain features can enhance or detract from the overall experience of a telling. Lwin applies this example to language and literacy education by arguing that clustering certain features (repetition , mimic gestures, slowing down pace) while introducing...