Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images, and sounds often by

improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every

culture and in every land as a means of entertainment, education, preservation of
culture and in order to instill moral values. Crucial elements of stories and storytelling
include plot and characters, as well as the narrative point of view.

The earliest forms of storytelling are thought to have been primarily oral combined
with gestures and expressions. Rudimentary drawings scratched onto the walls of
caves may be forms of early storytelling for many of the ancient cultures. The
Australian Aborginal people painted symbols from the stories on cave walls as a
means of helping the storyteller remember the story. The story was then told using a
combination of oral narrative, music, rock art and dance. Ephemeral media such as
sand, leaves, and the carved trunks of living trees have also been used to record stories
in pictures or with writing.

The evolution of technology has changed the tools available to storytellers. With the
advent of writing, the use of actual digit symbols to represent language, and the use of
stable, portable media stories were recorded, transcribed and shared over wide regions
of the world. Stories have been carved, scratched, painted, printed, or inked onto
wood or bamboo, ivory and other bones, pottery, clay tablets, stone, palm-leaf books,
skins (parchment), bark cloth, paper, silk, canvas and other textiles, recorded on film
and stored electronically in digital form. Complex forms of tattooing may also
represent stories, with information about genealogy, affiliation and social status.

Traditionally, oral stories were committed to memory and then passed from
generation to generation. However, in the most recent past, written and televised
media has largely surpassed this method communicating local, family and cultural
histories.

Oral traditions
Albert Bates Lord examined oral narratives (see also oral storytelling) from field
transcripts of Yugoslav oral bards collected by Milman Parry in the 1930s, and the
texts of epics such as The Odyssey and Beowulf.[1] Lord found that a large part of the
stories consisted of text improvised during the telling process.

Lord identified two types of story vocabulary. The first he called 'formulas': "rosy-
fingered dawn," "the wine-dark sea," certain set phrases had long been known of in
Homer and other oral epics. But no one realized before Lord how common these
formulas were. He discovered that across many story traditions that fully 90% of an
oral epic is assembled from lines repeated verbatim or with one-for-one word
substitutions. Oral stories are built out of phrases stockpiled from a lifetime of hearing
and telling stories.

The other type of story vocabulary is theme. A theme is a set sequence of story
actions that structure the tale. Just as the teller of tales proceeds line-by-line using
formulas, so he proceeds from event-to-event using themes. One almost universal
theme is repetition, as evidenced in Western folklore with the 'rule of three': three
brothers set out, three attempts are made, three riddles are asked. A theme can be as
simple as a specific set sequence describing the arming of a hero, starting with shirt
and trousers and ending with headdress and weapons. A theme can be large enough to
be a plot component. For example: a hero proposes a journey to a dangerous place / he
disguises himself / his disguise fools everybody / except for a common person of little
account (a crone, a tavern maid or a woodcutter) / who immediately recognizes him /
the commoner becomes the hero's ally, showing unexpected resources of skill or
initiative. A theme does not belong to a specific story, but may be found with minor
variation in many different stories. Themes may be no more than handy prefabricated
parts for constructing a tale. Or they may represent universal truths - ritual-based,
religious truths as James Frazer saw in The Golden Bough, or archetypal,
psychological truths as Joseph Campbell describes in The Hero With a Thousand
Faces.

The story was described by Reynolds Price, when he wrote:

A need to tell and hear stories is essential to the species Homo sapiens--second in
necessity apparently after nourishment and before love and shelter. Millions survive
without love or home, almost none in silence; the opposite of silence leads quickly to
narrative, and the sound of story is the dominant sound of our lives, from the small
accounts of our day's events to the vast incommunicable constructs of psychopaths."[2]

Folklorists sometimes divide oral tales into two main groups: "Märchen" and "Sagen".
These are German terms for which there are no exact English equivalents; the first
one is both singular and plural.

"Märchen," loosely translated as "fairy tale(s)" (though fairies are rare in them) take
place in a kind of separate "once-upon-a-time" world of nowhere-in-particular. They
are clearly not intended to be understood as true. The stories are full of clearly defined
incidents, and peopled by rather flat characters with little or no interior life. When the
supernatural occurs, it is presented matter-of-factly, without surprise. Indeed, there is
very little affect, generally; bloodcurdling events may take place, but with little call
for emotional response from the listener.

"Sagen," best translated as "legends," are supposed to have actually happened, very
often at a particular time and place, and they draw much of their power from this fact.
When the supernatural intrudes (as it often does), it does so in an emotionally fraught
manner. Ghost and lover's leap stories belong in this category, as do many UFO-
stories, and stories of supernatural beings and events. .

Another extremely important examination of orality in human life is Walter J. Ong's

Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (1982). Ong studies the
distinguishing characteristics of oral traditions, and how oral and written cultures
interact and condition one another, and ultimately influence human epistemology.

Storytelling as art form

Storytelling aesthetics
The art of narrative is by definition a highly aesthetic enterprise, and there are a
number of aesthetic elements that typically interact in well-developed stories. Such
elements include the essential idea of narrative structure, with identifiable beginnings,
middles and ends or exposition-development-climax-resolution-denouement,
normally constructed into coherent plot lines; a strong focus on temporality that
includes retention of the past, attention to present action, and protention/future
anticipation; a substantial focus on characters and characterization which is “arguably
the most important single component of the novel” (David Lodge The Art of Fiction
67); a given hetergloss of different voices dialogically at play—“the sound of the
human voice, or many voices, speaking in a variety of accents, rhythms and registers”
(Lodge The Art of Fiction 97); possesses a narrator or narrator-like voice, which by
definition “addresses” and “interacts with” reading audiences (see Reader Response
theory); communicates with a Wayne Booth-esque rhetorical thrust, a dialectic
process of interpretation, which is at times beneath the surface, conditioning a plotted
narrative, and other at other times much more visible, “arguing” for and against
various positions; relies substantially on now-standard aesthetic figuration,
particularly including the use of metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche and irony (see
Hayden White, Metahistory for expansion of this idea); is often enmeshed in
intertextuality, with copious connections, references, allusions, similarities, parallels,
etc. to other literatures; and commonly demonstrates an effort toward bildingsroman,
a description of identity development with an effort to evince becoming in character
and community.

Storytelling activities

Storytelling Festivals feature the work of several storytellers. Elements of the oral
storytelling art form include visualization (the seeing of images in the mind's eye),
and vocal and bodily gestures. In many ways, the art of storytelling draws upon other
art forms such as acting, oral interpretation, and performance studies.

Several storytelling organizations started in the US during the 1970s. National

Association for the Perpetuation and Preservation of Storytelling (NAPPS), now the
National Storytelling Network was one of them. This professional organization helped
to organize resources for tellers and festival planners. Australia followed their
American counterparts with the establishment of storytelling guilds in the late 1970s.
Australian storytelling today has individuals and groups across the country.

As of 2007, there are dozens of storytelling festivals and hundreds of professional

storytellers around the world, and an international celebration of the art on World
storytelling day. The internet storytelling forum, STORYTELL,sponsored by the
School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman's University in Denton,
has over 500 subscribers worldwide.

Emancipation of the story

In oral traditions, stories are kept alive by being re-told again and again. The material
of any given story during this process naturally undergoes several changes and
adaptations. When and where oral tradition was pushed back in favour of print media,
the literary idea of the author as originator of a story's authoritative version changed
people's perception of stories themselves. In the following centuries, stories tended to
be seen as the work of individuals rather than a collective. Only recently, when a
significant number of influential authors began questioning their own role, the value
of stories as such - independent of authorship - was again recognized. Literary critics
such as Roland Barthes even proclaimed the Death of the Author.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storytelling

What is Storytelling?
A statement by the National Storytelling Network defines Storytelling as an ancient
art form and a valuable form of human expression. Because story is essential to so
many art forms, however, the word “storytelling” is often used in many ways.

As a result, the National Storytelling Network would like to explain the term as it is
used by the growing and vibrant community of storytelling practitioners in the United
States and Canada.

Our hope is to call attention to storytelling as an art worth promoting, and to help
those outside the storytelling community to distinguish storytelling from other, related
forms of human expression.

Here is what most of us mean by “storytelling”:

Storytelling is the interactive art of using words and actions to reveal the elements and
images of a story while encouraging the listener’s imagination.

1. Storytelling is interactive.

Storytelling involves a two-way interaction between a storyteller and one or more

listeners. The responses of the listeners influence the telling of the story. In fact,
storytelling emerges from the interaction and cooperative, coordinated efforts of teller
and audience.

In particular, storytelling does not create an imaginary barrier between the speaker
and the listeners. This is part of what distinguishes storytelling from the forms of
theatre that use an imaginary “fourth wall.”

Different cultures and situations create different expectations for the exact roles of
storyteller and listener—who speaks how often and when, for example—and therefore
create different forms of interaction.
The interactive nature of storytelling partially accounts for its immediacy and impact.
At its best, storytelling can directly and tightly connect the teller and audience.

2. Storytelling uses words.

Storytelling uses language, whether it be a spoken language or a manual language

such as American Sign Language. The use of language distinguishes storytelling from
most forms of dance and mime.

3. Storytelling uses actions such as vocalization, physical movement and/or gesture.

These actions are the parts of spoken or manual language other than words. Their use
distinguishes storytelling from writing and text-based computer interactions. Not all
nonverbal language behaviors need to be present in storytelling. Some storytellers use
body movement extensively, for example, whereas others use little or none.

4. Storytelling presents a story.

Storytelling always involves the presentation of a story—a narrative. Many other art
forms also present story, but storytelling presents it with the other four components.
Every culture has its own definition of story. What is recognized as a story in one
situation may not be accepted as one in another. Some situations call for spontaneity
and playful digression, for example; others call for near-exact repetition of a revered
text. Art forms such as poetry recitation and stand-up comedy sometimes present
stories and sometimes don’t. Since they generally involve the other four components,
they can be regarded as forms of storytelling whenever they also present stories.

5. Storytelling encourages the active imagination of the listeners.

In storytelling, the listener imagines the story. In most traditional theatre or in a

typical dramatic film, on the other hand, the listener enjoys the illusion that the
listener is actually witnessing the character or events described in the story.
The storytelling listener’s role is to actively create the vivid, multi-sensory images,
actions, characters, and events—the reality—of the story in his or her mind, based on
the performance by the teller and on the listener’s own past experiences, beliefs, and
understandings. The completed story happens in the mind of the listener, a unique and
personalized individual. The listener becomes, therefore, a co-creator of the story as
experienced.

Storytelling can be combined with other art forms. The fruit born by the vital,
contemporary storytelling movement includes the development of ways to combine
storytelling with drama, music, dance, comedy, puppetry, and numerous other forms
of expression. Yet, even as it blends imperceptibly into other arts, the essence of
storytelling remains recognizable as the intersection of the five components included
in the above definition.

Storytelling happens in many situations, from kitchen-table conversation to religious

ritual, from telling in the course of other work to performances for thousands of
paying listeners. Some storytelling situations demand informality; others are highly
formal. Some demand certain themes, attitudes, and artistic approaches. As noted
above, the expectations about listener interaction and the nature of the story itself vary
widely.

There are many cultures on earth, each with rich traditions, customs and opportunities
for storytelling. All these forms of storytelling are valuable. All are equal citizens in
the diverse world of storytelling.

National Storytelling Network • 132 Boone St. #8 • PO

Box 795 • Jonesborough TN 37659 • 800-525-4514
This website, its contents, and all materials herein are copyright ©National
Storytelling Network. All rights reserved.

What is Storytelling?
A description by Chuck Larkin
The following description of "Storytelling" was posted by e-mail in a discussion on how to
define "Storytelling" on the Storytell Listserv. While most of the discussion agreed that
generally Storytelling is the art of orally sharing a story or experience to an audience, usually
face to face (to distinguish this "art" from writing stories, or making a movie or a theatrical
presentation - which may be described as "story telling" in a broader sense,) there was much
debate as to where to draw the lines. Because this posting gives a good overview of both the
diversity of story tellers and the various skills needed to be effective in telling, I requested
permission to post it with some minor editing on my web page.

Chuck Larkin was a nationally known Folk Storyteller who lived in

Atlanta, GA. A "tall tales anedotist" and a scholar of celtic lore, he also did
Master Storytelling Workshops which are described at his website, which
includes tall tales and Christmas stories.

Storytelling, one of our oldest art forms, has many branches spreading from
the trunk. All branches to various degrees are forms of entertainment and
information transfer.

The literary tellers include: tellers using rote word memory to remain true to
the author's manuscript, tellers who have changed the author's literary
language to oral language, tellers who have adjusted the language and added
their imbellishments, and tellers who have recast the literary story into a
different inventive approach of telling the literary story as personalized
experience. Folk Storytellers add into their memory banks a flowing serial
image of a story and create the word patterns during the telling of the story.
Between these two primary approaches of rote manuscript memory and
flowing imagery memory are other approaches I'm aware of, but am unable to
understand, other than the teller is unable to memorize words or see an image,
but they are talented tellers.

Literary and Folk storytellers also share the same need to understand and
develop their talent skills in supporting the storytelling with appropriate vocal
and physical body language which I refer to as Para-language. Lack of para-
language talent skills, while more subtle then poor word construction and
tongue twisting errors, are a major deterent to effective communication.

Storytelling includes tellers who have collected and retold stories from their
own culture and from other cultures, and tellers who have creative talents {and
those who lack development in creative talent} who develop original stories.

How a story is told has as many paths as there are storytellers. Some tellers
come from drama backgrounds and include, as example, monologuest
storytellers, others rose from storytelling cultures and family traditions, others
simply stepped out on stage and told stories.

Stories arrive from many paths and the tellers have arrived from many paths,
but all storytellers have in common the need to expand and develop their
speaking talents, for this is a public speaking art form and there are very
specific identifiable talent skills to understand and acquire. There are talent
skills that need to be used in all lingual communication situations that do not
change from one to one communication or from one to a group
communication and there are additional lingual talent skills to be used in
accordance to the environmental speaking conditions including audience and
space.
 All lingual storytelling includes both theater of the stage and theater of the
mind telling talents. A storyteller who plans to entertain on stage should
decide and control the audience's focus - either the action on stage {theater of
the stage} or focus the audience on their own mental imagery {theater of the
mind}. An audience also can focus on both the teller on stage and their own
flowing imagery. There is no right or wrong entertainment between theater of
the stage or theater of the mind, but the performing storyteller should have the
talent and knowledge to choose which of the two forms to use and when to
shift during a telling in lieu of basking in ignorance and letting chance shift
between the two entertainment forms.

Diagnosed talent errors are most often a pattern in an aspect of speech or a

failure to support the spoken word with appropriate verbal and physical para-
language. Patterns and inapt para-language diminish effective
communication. The most well known vocal para-language error, for
example, is the monotone pattern. Every facet of a teller's voice is either a
pattern interfering, or is neutral, or is supporting the flowing moment of the
story. Body para-language errors include any unconscious, but controllable
physical activity, distracting to a listener that fails to support the flowing
moment of the oration.

Actors on stage have planned movements called blocking that supports the
play. Storytellers on stage that have not planned their body movements
(Blocking) to support the flowing movement of the story either need to be
neutral {stand still} or move with a reason. Hand gestures {after one finely
learns to get their hands up and communicating} have to be trained to tell the
same story or know when to be neutral. In this case neutral can be up in view
but motionless waiting for the next que. Eye contact is looking at a member of
the audience until you know they know you are looking at them and at random
shifting, not head bobbin back and forth or gawking down one's nose unless
you are another Pete Seeger.

Boredom - I mean boaring boaring boaring Storytelling is listening to straight

narration. "But that's my style I use with kids!" Well look out some day they
will become free of their ball and chains and come looking for you! And if
they can't find you they take it out on their parents during their teens.

Always substitute at every opportunity Character thinking out loud and

Characters in dialogue and learn to change para-language, physical and vocal
and Word Per Minute speaking rate with a little accent for each character. It
ain't no big deal, just turn your child lose on stage cause if'n your willin' to be
a fool, God, well He's willin to make you wise.

- Chuck Larkin - Bluegrass Storyteller

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