Aspects Of Storytelling Research Articles

OM SANDALFØDDER OG MULIGHEDEN FOR FORANDRING

both the inferiority experienced by lowerclass
 Brazilians and the particular role
 of storytelling in the communication of
 anthropological insights. The two aspects of
 the article are related through the use of stories
 (here defined as recounts of particularly
 revealing moments during field-work) in the
 description of a metaphorical relationship
 between broad feet, poverty and second-class
 citizenship. Brazil is a society penetrated by
 social inequality in all aspects of daily life.
 The media bombardment of advertisements
 for products of all sorts increases the sense
 of inferiority among the poor. Signs on the
 body like grey, uncared-for skin and broad
 feet due to sandal use are experienced as the
 embodiment of ignorance and lack of selfcontrol.
 The informant Sonia explains the
 position as a “sandal foot” (pé de chinelo)
 with her story about lack of recognition and
 an often violent attitude towards lower-class
 Brazilians in the sphere of consumption as
 well as the health care system. In addition,
 a particular situation is described, in which
 the anthropologist witnesses a medical
 doctor misread a poor woman’s attempt
 to appear respectable. The anthropologist
 feels her impotence and detachment as
 an observer, while she dressed as a nurse
 unwillingly participates in the humiliation
 of the woman. This kind of experience, it is
 argued, provides a broadened understanding
 of human ex-perience, which may renew – in
 the anthro-pologist as well as her reader – the
 respect for the Other, crucial to any struggle
 for rights on a formal, and in the common
 sense, political level. The use of stories as
 vehicles for this kind of understanding and,
 more pragmatic-ally, for the anthropologist’s
 viewpoint in a highly politicized debate
 is justified by the particular capacity of
 storytelling. Stories about moments during
 fieldwork merge the “knower” and the
 known, it is argued, and engage the reader’s
 imagination and experience in the attempt to
 follow the process of knowing. They may
 therefore provide a richer understanding of
 anthro-pological insights than descriptions
 based on information and explanation alone.
 Besides, stories are per definition positioned,
 as there would be nothing to tell if nobody had
 sensed, felt and thought anything. Therefore,
 the telling of stories clearly engages the
 reader in an interpretation of the relationship
 between field, anthropologist and text. These
 two aspects of storytelling, the transportation
 of the reader to the field site by way of
 imagination, and the demand on the reader’s
 ability to interpret told situations, allow for
 a reflection upon human conditioning and
 the resulting plurality of perspectives. It also
 allows the anthropologist to put forward her
 perspective without postulating any superior
 knowledge.

A study of storytelling, humour and learning in medicine

Story telling is a fundamental part of clinical practice. It provides the mechanism by which doctors and patients communicate and understand the meaning of illness and possible ways of dealing with it. Humour is a particular aspect of story telling and, while there are some negative aspects, generally does have a therapeutic benefit. The physiological effects of laughter are considerable. Both story telling and humour are important for learning and are complementary to the more formal learning from text books and lectures. Stories assist in the development of emotional knowledge. The hypothesis of the contagious theory of behaviour change is presented as a way in which ideas are transmitted from one person to another

The Use of Traditional Storytelling in Education to the Learning of Literacy Skills

This paper focuses on the potential contribution of storytelling to education. It examines theoretical frameworks used to contextualise storytelling in formal education. The aim of the review was to identify a range of answers relating to the question: What does storytelling offer to the formal education of primary age children? Five major kinds of contributions, identified in the review of relevant literature, are discussed. They reflect the present state of knowledge about storytelling in education and the aspects which major theorists consider to be important. I have tried to explicate the links between the themes, and to discuss interrelated aspects of the use of storytelling in schools by educationists and storytellers. The first section begins by analysing the relationship of storytelling to other language and expressive arts: writing, talking, reading and drawing.The second section considers thinking and feeling, and the contribution of storytelling to the inner world of affect. The focus moves in the third section to autobiography, and in the fourth to narrative, two areas of human experience in which the human need to story as a way of making sense of that experience is a crucial factor. After exploring the implications of these essentially subjective personal aspects of storytelling for education, the fifth and final section considers some aspects of culture which are affected by the processes of storytelling in education.

Eudora Welty: Eye of the Storyteller

Part 1 Language and culture: American folk art, fine art, and Eudora Welty - aesthetic precedents for Lily Daw and Three Ladies, Ruth D.Weston June Recital - Virgie Rainey saved, Carey Wall Contradictors, Interferers, and Prevaricators - opposing modes of discourse in Eudora Welty's losing battles, Susan V.Donaldson Assault of Hope - style's substance in Welty's the Demonstrator, Suzanne Ferguson. Part 2 Women: Eudora Welty and dutiful daughter, Elizabeth Evans strategy of Edna Earle Ponder, Marilyn Arnold sibyis in Eudora Welty's stories, Peter Schmidt how not to tell a story - Eudora Welty's first-person tales, Ann Romines. Part 3 Visible connections: terrible and marvellous Eudora Welty's Chekhov, Jan Nordby Gretlund realities in Sir Rabbit - a frame analysis, Daun Kendig from metaphor to manifestation - artist in Eudora Welty's A Curtain of Green, Cheryll Burgess of suffering and joy - aspects of storytelling in Welty's short fiction, Daniele Pitavy-Souques. Part 4 Endurance and change: going to Naples and other places in Eudora Welty's fiction, Noel Polk from civil war to civil rights - race relations in Welty's A Worn Path, Nancy K Butterworth falling into cycles - Golden Apples, Thomas McHaney Where Is The Voice Coming From? - teaching Eudora Welty, Ruth.M.Vande Kieft.

Story-telling in conversation: Cognitive and interactive aspects

In a first step this article gives some definitional properties of a linguistic concept of narrative and discusses a few of the data provided by the papers in the first part of this volume in relation to this concept. Narration is taken as an interactive process, which is accomplished jointly by narrator and listener and which is always part of a larger frame of activities. This view has certain consequences as to the way in which narrative data should be elicited, documented and analyzed in all the relevant disciplines. These consequences are discussed briefly. In a second step, three different types of narration distinguished on the basis of formal properties of the narrative interaction are introduced. The ‘replaying’ conversational narrative, the report and the brief statement are described; emphasis is put upon the formal characteristics of the replaying discourse pattern: direct speech, historical present, imitation, evaluation and high degree of detailedness. In a third step, a cognitive aspect of story-telling is dealt with, namely the features of information processing typical of the transformation which an event undergoes when it becomes the referent of conversational narrative. In a final step, the methodological consequences of a linguistic theory of narrative as has been outlined before are shown in a sample analysis of one of the narratives documented by Wiedemann (pp. 43–55).

"Once Upon a Time" — Aspects of Story-Telling in Normal and Retarded Children

Previous studies of the language of retarded children have indicated that their understanding and use of language is poor when compared with their mental age and that they are more preoccupied with the "here and now" rather than past or future events. Fifty 4-year-olds, 50 5-year-olds and 50 E.S.N.(M) (moderately educationally subnormal) children were presented with a story-telling task using a book of pictures. A linguistic analysis was made of each story using a clausal analysis. The types of clauses, number of clauses, use of the past tense, and use of conjunctions were assessed. A longitudinal study of 12 of the E.S.N.(M) and 12 of the normal children was also carried out over one year. The longitudinal study showed a rapid increase in the use of the past tense in the normal children only, and that the length of story and use of tense were far less consistent over time in individual E.S.N.(M) children than in the normal children. There was no significant difference between the E.S.N.(M) and normal children of the same mental age in the cross-sectional study on any of the variables except in the use of conjunctions. It is suggested that there appears to be a difference in approach to language use that may reflect both social class and a slower developmental rate.

Professional Storytelling in Iran: Transmission and Practice

In this paper I shall describe briefly the background and setting of professional storytelling (naqqāli) in present-day Iran. Then I shall examine some aspects of how the craft of storytelling is transmitted, particularly with respect to how a young man becomes a storyteller and what aspects of storytelling are seen as important. Finally, I shall examine how this transmission relates to the way in which storytellers actually construct their performance.There are two separate, but related, aims in the paper. Through a comparison of the stories told and the literary works used as their source, I shall demonstrate that the Iranian national legend remains creative today. More generally, I shall demonstrate that the abstract values expressed as important to a craft may disregard those very elements which make a craftsman successful and which breathe life into the craft.