Blogim Stori (Storytelling Blog)

Storytelling images - imagination or visual?

2011-11-01T10:52:00.002-06:00

A group of us were just discussing what the difference would be telling a story with input from an individual's imagination as compared to telling a story based on visual input as from a video. I would imagine that they would be quite different outcomes as some academics have found that the visual generally trumps everything else. In other words, what we have viewed becomes cemented in our story imaging.

I once told the story of when Saul, a.k.a. Paul became blind on the way to Damascus. After finishing the story, some of the audience asked why I left certain details. I tried to think what I left out and couldn't remember what I might've missed. So I asked, and they responded that I left out the part about him falling off of his horse. I couldn't remember that being part of the written story. Storytellers do omit certain details depending on what they want to focus on. But, I honestly couldn't remember anything to do with a horse in this story, especially Saul falling off one. It turns out that in Caravaggio's (1601) painting of this scene, Saul is on his back looking up, and on the left is a horse, presumably the one he rode and fell from. This audience knew this story well, but still believed that there was a horse in it somewhere. I reflected and thought that this is a good example of the visual trumping everything else.

Word painting in a told story

2011-01-28T10:18:00.004-06:00

At choir practice the other night, our director, wanting to share some of his music education pointed to a frame in our anthem and cited it as an example of word, tone or text paining. He asked the composer, who was part of the choir, whether or not he intended it as such. In any case, it worked. In music, word painting "is the musical technique of writing music that reflects the literal meaning of a song. For example, ascending scales would accompany lyrics about going up; slow, dark music would accompany lyrics about death." (from Wikipedia) An example our director brought up, and that Wikipedia cites is in Handel's Messiah, where the crooked (wave-like tone) is made straight (level tone).
All that to say, is the other day I listened to someone telling the story of Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 18 and 21), where Sarah laughs when she hears she's to have a son in a year's time. Here's an opportunity to include a laugh or two to paint the story. Sarah and Abraham are well past child-bearing years and aren't getting any younger. Indeed she does bear a son, and funny thing, she feels like laughing, and states that others will laugh with her too now that Isaac is born, his name actually meaning 'he laughs'. I imagine Sarah's first laugh was one of disbelief, like a laugh that comes so quick one can't help it when hearing something so implausible. Her second laugh, once Isaac was named must've been something heartier than the first.
So, thanks for the teachable moment, Andrew. Word painting is another tool I can intentionally use in telling a story.

Storytelling guilds

2010-10-20T10:29:00.004-06:00

Last night we attended a local guild of storytellers and felt a positive rush at the end of a hectic day. It was worth the snarly traffic and extra effort to get there. Why, because it gave us a safe audience to trial our stories. The feedback was great too, and constructive. Storytelling guilds tend to meet regularly, prodding tellers to hone their craft, and providing a framework for newbies to learn in a safe environment. It's something I'd highly recommend if you want to improve your storytelling.

Most of the Bible in 90 minutes - Dennis Dewey

2010-05-14T10:11:00.005-06:00

Last night we had the privilege to see and hear Dennis Dewey perform an array of Bible stories beginning, of course at 'The beginning... , going on to 'The Fall', 'Abraham, Sarah and their guests','The Exodus', 'The Daughters of Zelophehad', 'Jonah' (we all liked the fish - and the song of lament), 'Jesus' Birth', 'Jesus, the boy in the temple', 'Jesus Calms the Storm', 'Jairus' daughter', 'The parables of the persistent widow' and 'The two praying', 'Jesus death and resurrection', and a bit of 'John's revelation'.

Wow! It was a great performance! Dennis brought out the voices of the characters in the stories and let the emotion of the story speak. And we felt like we were part of the story. I couldn't imagine listening to a sermon (although I've endured my share of long sermons) for 90 minutes and wanting more. 90 minutes represents a lot of material, both for the storyteller and the audience, and yet we discussed different scenes on the way home and this morning as well. We're still talking over the stories with our colleagues and they are as vivid in our minds now as they were last night.

As a storyteller, it's great to be in the audience and see tellers like Dennis perform. It gives me more ideas of how I'll tell one of those stories in the future, not that I'll attempt to do as Dennis did, but his voice and performance gives me more to think about and to explore.

It was a great experience. Wish you could have been there.

Holy Writ as Oral Lit - Alan Dundes

2010-04-22T13:19:00.006-06:00

I'm just finished reading Alan Dundes book, 'Holy Writ as Oral Lit', and found some gems to mull over. He states that 'Variation is the hallmark of folklore' (p.5) and that the variation within the Bible indicates that the Bible itself is folklore. Having asserted this, that the Bible is folklore is not saying that it is untrue, rather that its origins are oral rather than written, and the stories were passed on by eyewitnesses and audiences. He gives many examples of how the Bible accounts fluctuate (time, number, name, place, etc.) and states that he could've written much more on the subject. Robin Griffith-Jones in his book, 'The Four Witnesses' also discusses variation in the Gospels reflecting the point of views of their authors, each Gospel being written for a different purpose. Putting them together as a succinct account therefore does a disservice to the intent of the author. In the same way, storytellers have main points, or what Doug Lipman refers to as the Most Important Thing that they keep in mind when telling. In fact, the story is shaped by the Most Important Thing (Lipman, Improving your storytelling. 1999:87).

For me, the introduction and conclusion were the most interesting part of this book. Dundes states what folklore is, and that folklore doesn't stop being such once it is written. Generally people think of the terms of story, folklore and myth as things that are untrue. In the academic world, such is not the case.

Whatever your beliefs about the Bible might be, I think this book is a good read, especially if you also are interested in folklore.

Holidays and Family Stories

2009-11-24T10:13:00.007-06:00

This good looking group of people are some of my relatives in Pennsylvania and are just a little older than when I took this photo. We'll be seeing them over the holidays and I'm gearing up to elicit some good family stories with the intent of archiving them and passing them on. They have some great stories from Depression times, aspirations, and the usual and unusual brother and sister adventures. Usually the best storytelling hearing or performance is at an event where they're all together. Thankfully, I've got some help this time such as books on eliciting family stories and a small unobtrusive digital voice recorder. In any event I'm looking forward to hearing these family stories again, and maybe unearthing some new ones.
Here is one resource from Dr Karl Franklin on storytelling, including a section on eliciting family stories.

Tell Me a Story - Late Don Hewitt video

2009-10-08T09:01:00.003-06:00

Watch CBS News Videos Online I saw this on 60 Minutes in celebration of Don Hewitt, "Hewitt's Success Secret". It's a bit late to post this link, since this clip was shown back in August, but after having attended a couple conferences where people I met didn't see this video, I thought it would be a good idea to post the link. Don Hewitt, the founder of 60 Minutes, stated that his motto was 'tell me a story'. It was the premise for the show, news in the form of a story. I especially like the part where he says 'even the people in the Bible were smart enough to know, tell them a story..."
Personally I like telling stories, especially Bible stories. Stories engage listeners and tellers alike.
If you haven't seen this video, I hope you enjoy it.

A book I'm reading - Provoking the Gospel: methods to embody Biblical storytelling through drama

2009-09-22T10:00:00.005-06:00

I'm still thinking about my prior post concerning the spectrum of acting and telling a story. Then my wife suggested I read this book, Provoking the Gospel: Methods to embody Biblical storytelling through drama. I'm just starting, but am finding good stuff from the start. Here's a quote from the preface, p viii

"Contentment with the same old readings of biblical stories leads to rigor mortis. We need to poke these old stories, to pole them and provoke them a little. And nothing does that textual poking and provoking like public, physical performance. If you can continue to pretend that these old stories are calm compilations of ideas (our ideas!), the "same old" readings will be fine. But public audiences will not sit still for dull, formulaic performances. So if we dare to accept the risk and challenge of playing these fascinating old stories for audiences who are free to see what is actually there, free to react, respond, and argue, then we will need to poke hard at these stories."

I'm sure I'll be posting more from what I learn from this author.

The spectrum of telling and acting a story

2009-09-16T08:08:00.003-06:00

It's been a long time since I've posted anything. As they say in Vanuatu, sori tumas. Just recently I attended a Network of Biblical Storytellers Gathering in Asheville, NC and had a great time watching others perform their stories. This time I got into the act a bit by participating in a coaching session for storytellers. I would not have been ready for something like this at an earlier conference, but really appreciated the input I got from the coaches and other tellers. I would say it was for me the highlight of the gathering. My experience with storytelling comes from listening to family stories and living in cultures where storytime is a part of a normal day. But I don't have much of any background with drama, and both my storytelling coaches did. I appreciated being pushed to tell with more dramatic expression, making my gestures larger and my emotion fit the mood of the story. The feedback from the audience was very positive and the audience really liked the change, stating it more on the scale of a metamorphosis. I know some professional storytellers encourage new storytellers to find their own voice, tell their stories naturally, but I think knowing something of drama basics can add much to the storyteller's performance. Perhaps the goal is to find a good meeting place between culture, telling, performing or acting and one's style and identity or person.

Finding stories in daily life

2008-12-22T11:30:00.007-06:00

While touring the National Museum in Jakarta's Taman Mini, we came across this alphabet chart of local scripts. Our cabbie was along for the tour and told us that there was a story associated with the alphabet. Using the consonants plus a vowel sound, a simple CV syllable pattern, a story was told about two great personages fighting it out till the death, something like a struggle between good and bad, with no positive resolution. What astounded us was not so much the story, but that it was tied to learning these alphabets, and that the cabbie, who learned it as a boy still remembered the story and the alphabets. There are several alphabets pictured here. I guess it goes to show how powerful stories can be as memory enhancers.
PS. Thanks for reading this blog and your encouraging remarks.

Blog Action Day - Poverty

2008-10-14T10:17:00.005-06:00

I've just learned that tomorrow, October 15 is 'Blog Action Day' on Poverty, a day for bloggers to highlight world poverty. Where does one begin when addressing world poverty?! I recently traveled to South Asia during the monsoon season. It wasn't too bad while we were there, but a couple weeks later local inhabitants of Bihar and southern Nepal were deluged by the rains and Kosi River. Thousands were evacuated, lost their homes, lost their lives, livelihood and are still facing the aftereffects of flooding and disease. We might read about this in a buried section of the newspaper, most likely not. It's not the focus. World news as broadcast by US news is taken captive by elections and financial upheaval news. So, here's a chance to think, pray or do something for the poor and suffering.

New orality newsletter - Accuracy, Fidelity, Stability?

2008-07-22T10:07:00.003-06:00

Janet Stahl just published a new newsletter on the topic of accuracy, fidelity and stability - having to do with changes that happen when stories are retold and the role played by community and collective memory.

Oral Traditions Graduate Course at GIAL

2008-07-14T15:09:00.004-06:00

Dr Karl Franklin is heading another graduate course called Oral traditions and Literature from August 22 through October 17, 2008 at the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics in South Dallas.

The course will include the following topics:

the perception and power of storytelling
storytelling in knowledge-based organizations
cultural aspects of storytelling (including history and folktales)
encouraging and evaluating language viability through storytelling
semantics and storytelling - determining what a story means
Bible storytelling
storytelling in drama, music and other media
storytelling as an integral part of language development

Storytelling book by Karl Franklin

2008-07-14T15:02:00.003-06:00

Dr Karl Franklin has just posted an online book on storytelling and oral traditions. It's something he's been developing as a result of teaching a graduate course on oral traditions. Karl has looked at storytelling and oral traditions having worked with Papuan languages for over 35 years.

Happy reading.

Your (sg, pl?) story

2008-04-28T08:35:00.009-06:00

I've been ruminating on this topic of 'your story' for the past week after reading one recent post on Anecdote, 'Revealing Character' by Shawn. The post, 'Revealing Character' addresses our two sets of stories: those that reveal our character and those that show what motivates me. The first kind of story answers the question “Who am I?” and the second kind answers the question “Why am I here?” I believe that we vary these stories based on our audience and situation and what aspect of our character we want to convey.

Anecdote, by the way, is one of my favorite bookmarked sites for thoughts on storytelling in the workplace, narrative, communities of practice and collaborative learning and working.

We could expand the subject of the question to 'Who are we?' and 'Why are we here?' in order to reveal a group's character, identity and motivation. The 'we' could be any dense network such as a community, family, workgroup, team, etc. Here's a possible example: My wife and I spent some time in Madang, Papua New Guinea and during our time there someone uncovered an old WWII road grader. The group pulled it out, cleaned it up and got it working again. It was the sort pulled by a tractor. Our leader stated that the steel used for this grader was made by Bethlehem Steel. Wow, a 50 year old grader left sitting in the jungle of PNG, made by Bethlehem Steel still worked! Must've been good steel. I identified with this story immediately. I never worked at Bethlehem Steel, but my dad did and so did most of my uncles and some of my aunts. On top of that, my dad was stationed briefly in PNG during WWII.

So, the group in this story could be my family, people from Bethlehem, PA and /or former Bethlehem Steel employees. There is a certain amount of pride being connected with Bethlehem and the Steel. Even though the Steel folded, it has retained a certain legacy.

What my wife remembers of this story was that our road badly needed to be repaired or graded, and shortly after the uncovering and cleaning the grader was put into good use fixing that road.

Other possible group stories could include origin stories. My uncle likes to tell us stories of the Siegfried clan, their origins in Germany and settlement in eastern Pennsylvania.

Another example of 'who we are?' could be how organizations came into being. I really enjoyed hearing stories from how our organization started as a 'skunkworks' and what the founders had in mind. Those stories gave me a sense of history and identity.

A few days after reading the Anecdote post, I attended a local storytelling guild. Since many of us were new to the guild, the long-term members of the guild told their signature stories. The leader prompted each by requesting them to tell 'their' stories'. Each told their story fabulously. What an example of storytelling for us newbies! In other words, each of the tellers had adopted a story told originally by somebody else, but after numerous performances within this guild, the tellers had become closely associated with their story until it had become their ‘signature’ story. I would like to ask each teller what made them choose the story that they told as their signature story. What was it about the story that inspired them to identify with it?

I could be talking about two or more different things, personal experience stories that reflect character and motivation and stories that the teller identifies with that reflects on who they are and what they value.

I was on the point of explaining to the storytelling guild why my wife and I told the story we selected from Vanuatu, as it is a bit odd to American ears; when a veteran storyteller commented that the stories we (re)tell reflect who we are. The reason we told the story of the birds and the turtle was that it was so different culturally from stories we knew and grew up with.

The story we told involves a group of birds from Vanuatu getting together and deciding to make a vegetable garden. The biggest bird decides to take the lead and organize the bush-clearing to prepare the garden. As a result of their hard work, all were thirsty. So, the biggest bird decides to fetch some water from a pool guarded by a turtle. The turtle runs off the big bird, and thereupon a small fantail takes up the cause. This bird not only succeeds in getting the water, but bludgeons the turtle with a stick. In the end the fantail is made the group's leader and the narrator adds 'this is why you see the fantail always among a group of birds looking out for danger.'

I'm sure there is some lesson to learn in this story as it is included in an early reader series for Vanuatu public schools. The moral of the story could have something to do with the biggest is not always successful or it may be a story to explain why fantails behave as they do. To find out, we'd have to ask an insider, someone belonging to the group from which the story came.

Then, Sunday, we heard a sermon based on the Joseph story from Genesis. The Joseph story takes up considerable space in the Genesis account. It's a great story. Here we have Joseph, the youngest of a group of brothers who has a dream in which he foresees his other brothers bowing to him. Joseph already is much loved by his father, making his brothers jealous of him. Joseph’s dream and interpretation add to the tension. As a result, Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery and he ends up in Egypt. There he serves a rich man and is wrongly accused by the man’s wife. He is thrown in a dungeon and is miraculously given a prominent position when he is able to correctly interpret the pharaoh’s dream. Joseph’s brothers eventually meet up with him because of famine in their land after which Joseph schemes to reunite the whole family. So after all the years, the trials and the successes Joseph experiences in Egypt, he reveals what he thinks is the purpose of his life. Maybe Joseph did not have the full answer as to 'why he was here?' until close to the end of the story.

When I tell stories dealing with language development and training I feel invigorated. At this point in my life, starting a different kind of work in language development, I find myself telling different stories, or looking at stories of past experiences from a different angle. I imagine that after some experience working in this new position, I'll have another set of personal and communal stories to share. I'm looking forward to collecting this new set of stories and hope that they will energize us.

Storyweaving and feedback from the 'other' story

2008-04-10T09:57:00.005-06:00

Recently, we presented to our colleagues, our newly undertaken work with oral approaches to translation and language development. To give our colleagues a taste of what we have in mind, I wove a personal story with an old and very well-known story. The latter story was what I had hoped was in focus. Instead, much to my surprise, I received very positive feedback in connection with my personal story. Briefly, the personal story centered around my first experience of the feeling that life is meaningless, when my sister died in an auto accident. I was 12 at the time. In telling my story, I wanted to connect with the motif of 'meaninglessness / vanity / futility' found in the well-known story of the book, Ecclesiastes (chapters 1,2 and 12), which I'm viewing as a personal journey of the Teacher, aka Qoheleth, in his search for meaning. I did get positive feedback on the telling of Ecclesiastes too, but it was the personal story of my sister's death that people responded to first.

This experience taught me that the audience connects with stories, especially stories woven together, at various points. Most likely, where the audience connects depends on their interpretive frames and experiences or personal stories. Perhaps I could have woven the stories together in a different fashion if I wanted a different response. I'm satisfied with the response and feedback from the audience, but I can't get passed how surprised I was at how strongly people connected with my personal story. I told an earlier version of this storyweaving to a another audience and received a different response. I know that I told my personal story better the second time. We'll see what happens next time.

GURT 2008 'Telling Stories' Report

2008-04-09T13:54:00.004-06:00

I enjoyed attending the 2008 session (March 14-16) of the Georgetown University Roundtable (GURT), meeting other participants and listening to the presenters and keynote speakers. While the conference focused on the analysis of narratives, we heard some good stories in the process. Some of William Labov's example stories that he told left the audience on the edge of their seats. Richard Bauman shared some entertaining stories from tellers who made use of early audio equipment. Jerome Bruner, the last of our keynote speakers shared how jurisgenic stories shape law and how narratives help maintain culture.

As a result of attending the conference, I've gathered a long list of books I'd like to read and questions for further research.

Attached is my report.

Vanuatu traditional stories - ol kastom stori blong Vanuatu

2008-03-31T09:14:00.004-06:00

For those of you interested in reading traditional stories from Vanuatu, you can find some published on the Vanuatu Daily Post website. These stories are supplied by the Vanuatu Cultural Centre and most likely from their fieldworkers. Vanuatu people have some great traditional stories. Some stories are similar across the country, but many are central to a language and culture. Here is a link to the Vanuatu Daily Post where you might be able to read some for yourself. Most likely, they will be written in Bislama, which is the national language of Vanuatu.
(The illustration is from an Ambrym tale drawn by David Tovovor for a vernacular literacy workshop in 2003.)

Momentum Magazine - orality issue

2008-03-20T09:59:00.003-06:00

The Momentum Project just published online their latest issue, 'Telling the Story'. This issue centers on the topic of orality. I've got an article in it on how storytelling can be an integral part of language development and translation and augment the process. My wife, Janet has an article called 'Orality and translation: focusing on images rather than words'. Our colleague, Karl has an article of FAQs of storytelling and translation.

Orality newsletters - Janet Stahl

2008-02-25T13:51:00.004-06:00

My wife, Janet has been writing some newsletters on the topic of orality. So we'll be posting them here occasionally on this blog.

Jim

GURT 2008

2008-02-07T15:21:00.000-06:00

March 14-16 are the date for this year's GURT (Georgetown University's Round Table). This year's topic is storytelling 'Telling Stories: Building bridges among Language, Narrative, Identity, Interaction, Society and Culture.' What an opportunity to have storytelling the focus of this linguistic conference. I'm planning to go and look forward to posting some of what I learn as a result. One of my heroes in the world of sociolinguistics, William Labov will be one of the plenary speakers. Deborah Tannen is also speaking. I'll have to attend 'They immediately know you're from Pennsylvania' by Barbara Johnstone.

Variation on folktales - a kiss or body slam?

2007-11-19T13:27:00.003-06:00

We just purchased a copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales and I started reading the first one, The Frog King. I expected to read about the story of the princess kissing the frog and him becoming a prince and the two living happily ever after. At least that's how it has been passed on to me through various media. Much to my surprise, assuming that written stories don't change, I read that only after the princess threw the frog against the wall in disgust did he change into a prince. The body slam hardly seems like a gesture of endearment. But, low and behold he changed and they did marry. I thought this would be the end of the story, but instead a new character is introduced after the main event. He is Henry, the prince's longtime aide, who's heart had to be banned three times so it would not break out of sadness (when the prince became a frog). Instead, Henry is so glad, his heart bursts out of joy for his master. The bands break and all three ride off.

The website SurLaLune Fairy Tales has some good annotations describing the reasons behind the variation and significant parts and characters of the story. So, the translator, Edgar Taylor (1823) changes a significant event in the story to suit his taste or perhaps what he thought his audience would enjoy.

In the Wikipedia write-up, the contributor calls the violent act of throwing the frog against the wall, a means to undo shapeshifting.

Kai and natural English

2007-11-06T15:08:00.000-06:00

I've been thinking about natural English, storytelling and translation. When I attended formal schooling I was taught that sentences starting with 'and' are not proper English. I don't think my teacher went so far as to say such sentences were ungrammatical, but just not proper.

One of the goals of a good translation is that it achieves a certain naturalness. The translation doesn't sound like the language it came from but the language into which it was translated. When reading the Christmas story in some new English Bible translations (not The Message) I was surprised to see that several of the sentences started with 'and' or 'but'. This is very common for the source language, Koine Greek - 'kai'. But how common is this for English? Does starting sentences or paragraphs with 'and' or 'but' mirror spoken English? Is the rule prohibiting using 'and' sentence initial specifically for written English? Is it a reflection of the difference between spoken and written language, or possibly a reflection of a regional variety of spoken English?

I thought I'd start listening to people telling their stories and how they begin major sections. Well, just yesterday was a good time to listen as we had a 2 hour meeting and the presentations were interspersed with stories. One presenter told a story, where after the introduction each section started with 'and' and the last section started with 'so'. It was in the last section where the significant action happened, marked by language like 'he was stunned'. The transition in these paragraph starters marked a significant change in the story to me as the listener.

What do you think?

The relationship between literacy and orality

2007-07-25T10:14:00.001-06:00

While working in Vanuatu people were excited to see their language developed as a written language. Some understand the benefits of literacy as shown on the banner 'Literacy Helps Us' (Literasi i givhan long ol pipol - Bislama). And generally, people enjoy seeing their stories written and illustrated. Mostly, people not living in the town centers don't have all that much to read on a daily basis, which affects their literate abilities. The relationship between orality and literacy within a culture is intriguing. Is the relationship dichotomous or interwoven?

Orality and Literacy is Ong’s most widely known work, having been translated into at least 12 languages. At first glance, the title suggests a variety of topics such as technology, and orality as compared to literacy, perhaps favoring one over the other. Before I go further, I would like to take the reader to the end of the book, where Ong states that being literate definitely has its advantages. Ong is concerned with the interrelationship between orality and literacy.

“Orality is not an ideal, and never was. To approach it positively is not to advocate it as a permanent state for any culture. Literacy opens possibilities to the word and to human existence unimaginable without writing. Oral cultures today value their oral traditions and agonize over the loss of these traditions, but I have never encountered or heard of an oral culture that does not want to achieve literacy as soon as possible. (Some individuals of course do resist literacy, but they are mostly soon lost sight of.) Yet orality is not despicable. It can produce creations beyond the reach of literates, for example, the Odyssey. Nor is orality ever completely eradicable; reading a text oralizes it. Both orality and the growth of literacy out of orality are necessary for the evolution of consciousness.” (Ong 2001 171)

The subtitle to this book is ‘technologizing the word’. In order to understand what Ong meant, he urges the reader to consider that writing in itself is a technology, using tools such as styles, quills, pencils, pens and computers. Ong notes that Plato had his objections to the technology of writing, but in order to make his point wrote about it. Plato’s main criticism had to do with the effect that writing would have on mental processes (Ong 2002:79).

Even though writing is ‘completely artificial’ according to Ong – in fact Ong states, “There is no way to write ‘naturally’”, Ong praises writing as such. “Like other artificial creations and indeed more than any other, it is utterly invaluable and indeed essential for the realization of fuller, interior, human potentials.” (2002:81)

This statement on technology being internalized makes me think of playing a musical instrument. There are some songs and etudes that I play from kinesthetic memory, and when I think about them too much, stumble. Yet Ong states that:

“The use of a technology can enrich the human psyche, enlarge the human spirit, intensify its interior life. Writing is an even more deeply interiorized technology than instrumental musical performance is. But to understand what it is, which means to understand it in relation to its past, to orality, the fact that it is a technology must be honestly faced.” (2002:82)

Orality and Literacy is a seminal work on this topic taking the reader deep into the inter-relatedness and polarities between the two concepts. Ong explores the history of literacy and the change from orality to literate cultures and how literacy brings a way of thinking not conceivable by primary oral cultures. He is very careful to distinguish between intelligence and cognitive processes or ways of thinking, by no means insinuating that oral cultures are primitive and unintelligent, rather exploring how the two cognitive processes differ and interact.

Identification stories

2007-06-20T15:40:00.001-06:00

A group of us met to talk about language development strategy the other day and got to the subject of identity, what identifies a person with a certain group, i.e. language, dress, ways of doing things, religion, accent, food and stories. We're from the USA, and can point to the legends of the founding fathers as something shared, or of conflicts, expansion, immigration, travel, exploration, science, drama and American literature as being somewhat shared. Where does one go from there? I'm from eastern Pennsylvania of southern German descent. I'm grateful to my uncle and other relatives for researching the family history. I have family tree charts and am learning the stories, which identify me with a certain people, even though for me the language, Pennsylvania German, is gone. I'm sure that if Pennsylvania German would've been passed on to me, I would've identified more strongly with that group than I do at present.

While living on Epi Island in Vanuatu, we learned some of their stories, such as how Lamen Island arrived in its present location, having floated over from Malakula Island. They say you can see the hole in the reef where it once stood. Knowing the story, especially in the Lamen language, helps Lamen Islanders identify with their group. It's a shared story of their past.

Even in Vanuatu identity is layered. One can be called 'Man Vanuatu' as being a citizen of Vanuatu, or 'Man Epi' as being from the particular island called Epi. Epi has at least 5 languages though, spoken by around 5,000 people. So, 'Man Epi' is not enough to identify oneself in that situation. Someone might speak the Lewo language and then is probably not 'Man Lewo' as you'd expect, but identified by the village they live in. People there know what language is spoken in what village. After that, people are identified by their clans and families.

We had a good discussion on language and identity, and shared stories that mark that group. What stories identify you and your group? It can be a difficult question to answer, but one worth asking.

Storytelling as an assessment tool

2007-06-06T10:38:00.000-06:00

Lately we've been discussing Doug Lipman's course on storytelling (called Storytelling Workshop in a Box^TM, available from www.storydynamics.com or email doug@storydynamics.com) and most recently the topic of eliciting stories. Doug urges storytellers to hear other people's stories and in so doing this will help them become better storytellers. Some important aspects of eliciting a story are listening and imagining what is happening in the story. At some point in the imagining processes the listener needs to question what they might be missing in the story. What gaps are there in the story? My wife for instance can read a novel and find holes or character changes.

Then I was thinking after listening to some children retell a Bible story they had just heard in church, about storytelling or retelling a story as an assessment tool for comprehension. In one way, this would help the teller see what impressions the story made on the audience, and in another possibly show what the listener understood or didn't understand.

In the field of sociolingusitics, questioning people about stories they've heard is a useful way to assess how well they might understand another language variety. This method can take a variety of forms, answers to direct questions on short stories or a retelling of the story.

So, I did what I usually do, and search Google to see what others have written on the subject of storytelling and assessment and found this e-article on the subject of using storytelling as an means of assessment by George Rooney called 'Storytelling and Contextually Based Design Techniques for Needs Assessment'

Connecting with the audience through storytelling

2007-05-31T09:42:00.000-06:00

Last July, my wife and I attended the National Storyteller Conference in downtown Pittsburgh overlooking Fort Pitt and Heinz field. Other than being so close to where our favorite team, the Steelers plays football, we had a great time meeting storytellers from around the country and hearing not only their stories but what helps to make their stories so interesting to listen to, or what makes them good storytellers. It was the first time for us to attend a National Storytelling Network (NSN) Conference. After attending several of the workshops, we came away convinced that telling stories is an engaging and memorable form of communication. We decided to tell stories rather than presenting our work and vision through a progression of points. The first thing we did when we arrived home was to redo our 'presentation' by selecting stories that would communicate the same ideas. Having practiced weaving stories together at the conference, we wove together stories, some of which were ancient, some current and some from Vanuatu. The audience we spoke to knew us, but after this talk they commented that they had a much better idea of what our work is all about and what we hoped to do in the future. It was an 'aha' experience for me, as well as being somewhat humbling, in the sense that I thought we had communicated those same ideas several times previously. The experience was also somewhat exciting in that we received unsolicited and positive feedback and had a taste of connecting with our audience through storytelling.

Storytelling and Oral Tradition Graduate Course Notice

2007-05-25T09:41:00.000-06:00

This year I (Karl Franklin) am again offering a graduate course (August 20 to September 17) on oral tradition and literature (storytelling) at the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics (GIAL) in Dallas, TX. It provides insight into why storytelling is so important in oral cultures and what it has to offer in literate cultures as well. Although illustrations are given from Biblical storytelling sources, the course is designed to encourage fieldworkers to understand and document oral histories, genealogies and folklore through stories, which include parables, proverbs, songs and other genres. The course runs for two hours a day and is divided into information processing in the first hour and practice in the second. There is also a fairly heavy reading schedule. My background is in linguistics and anthropology (Papua New Guinea for almost 35 years), but it is only in the last few years that I have worked on storytelling. - Karl Franklin

Land ownership and oral tradition

2007-05-24T13:17:00.000-06:00

Thanks for stopping by. I've been thinking more of what Walter Ong has written in 'Orality and Literacy' lately under the section of 'From Memory to Written Records'. I find what I'm reading as fascinating and resonates with current issues in the Pacific, especially with regards to land. In some parts of the Pacific, like Vanuatu, land is owned solely by people from Vanuatu. It is largely inherited, passed on from generation to generation. Others can lease the land for around 75 years (see Oxfam NZ report). Land disputes frequently come before chiefs, land councils and the courts. It's a problem. Land disputes traditionally are settled by what the claimants can say about the land in question, which has to do with ancestors, lineage, stories concerning the land and ancestors, and the language of the area. The oral memory is crucial to land ownership. In the last several years there has been a push to prove ownership with written records. It would be a major step toward a very different way of settling disputes and connection with one's land. Here, the story is more than something about the land, it is vital to the future of one's family. I'm not sure where the process is at the moment, but at the least it points to how one's story is one's identity in the Pacific. What got me thinking on this was this quote from Ong on page 97:

"Customary law, trimmed of material no longer of use, was automatically always up to date and thus youthful – a fact which paradoxically, makes customary law seem inevitable and thus very old (cf. Clanchy 1979, p. 233). Persons whose world view has been formed by high literacy need to remind themselves that in functionally oral cultures the past is not felt as an itemized terrain, peppered with verifiable and disputed ‘facts’ or bits of information. It is the domain of the ancestors, a resonant source for renewing awareness of present existence, which itself is not an itemized terrain either. Orality knows no lists or charts or figures.”

Variability on a story theme and oral memory

2007-05-15T14:14:00.000-06:00

While living on Epi Island, Vanuatu, my wife and I started collecting what is known as 'custom' stories from adults in the Lamen language group. Custom stories are traditional stories that have been passed on from generation to generation. The Lamen language community is mostly an oral community and although a multilingual community they use their own language, Lamen when telling stories to each other. Most of the stories we collected had to do with the origins of Epi and Lamen Islands. Much to our surprise, none of the stories were the same. Our assumption was that if not the same, they would be very close to being so. We assumed oral memory would equate a verbatim retelling. I mentioned earlier that I'm reading Orality and Literacy by Ong and came to a section that made me reflect back to our experience on Epi Island learning the Lamen language and culture. Ong writes on page 66:

"In all cases, verbatim or not, oral memorization is subject to variation from direct social pressures. Narrators narrate what audiences call for or will tolerate. When the market for a printed book declines, the presses stop rolling but thousands of copies may remain. When the market for an oral genealogy disappears, so does the genealogy itself, utterly."

Storytelling and language communities with small populations

2007-05-11T10:41:00.000-06:00

Language groups with small populations are often bypassed in language development projects, partly because agencies that are involved in aspects of literacy and translation do not have trainers or consultants to assist. Translation and literacy involve infrastructures that are available to only a limited degree in isolated areas. In addition, there are economic factors that affect small, isolated groups. The two articles given here ('Re-thinking stories' and 'Proposing an alternative initial strategy') suggest that storytelling can be a viable initial language development strategy for small languages in particular.

Orality and Literacy - Walter Ong - 'Wish I read this years ago'

2007-05-09T09:10:00.000-06:00

I'm finally reading through Walter Ong's book 'Orality and Literacy' and wish I had done so years ago. It would have helped me to appreciate some issues that we recognized while living in Vanuatu, but wished I had understood . We lived in Vanuatu since 1991, spending several years on rural Epi Island and several more in the 'urban' center and capital, Port Vila. During that time we ran many training events dealing with language development, literacy and translation and learned that our 'normal' mode of training wasn't working with people from Vanuatu. While people from Vanuatu are not what Ong would call 'primary oral' cultures, probably the majority operate in an oral mode. Because we were intent on making our training fit the trainees, we recommended that trainees learn in groups and be the sole speaker of their language in the course. We also learned that not all needed to write what the group had learned, but one could serve as the scribe. In this way, the small group could process orally what they were learning.
Had I read 'Orality and Literacy' I think I might've appreciated repetitive stories more than I did. When meeting Vanuatu friends, we'd hear what was happening since our last meeting, then we'd hear the same story a couple more times before we departed. I don't know how normal this is for mostly oral cultures but I would imagine it would be fairly normal. It's a device for helping people remember the story and provides continuity. Ong states on page 40
"Since redundancy characterizes oral thought and speech, it is in a profound sense more natural to thought and speech than is sparse linearity. Sparse linear or analytic thought and speech are artificial creations, structured by the technology of writing.... With writing, the mind is forced into a slowed-down pattern that affords it the opportunity to interfere with and recognize its more normal, redundant processes."
Even when I read the word 'redundancy' I get a negative connotation as my educational experience taught me to be concise, being educated from a mostly literate culture. Had my childhood been in a mostly oral society, redundant probably would've been good and normal.
More on Ong later, thanks for dropping by.

2007-04-30T09:05:00.000-06:00

Tell me a story, or a half a dozen or so. We heard several good ones in a variety of styles this weekend at the Dallas Storytelling Festival in Heritage Park. Some of the stories were memorized and rhyming, some passed on from people like Ray Bradbury, some deeply personal, some with props, and some of our own. At the first station we visited the professional storytellers actually wanted to hear some of our stories. So they heard about cultural miscues in Kewa and Lamen, two language groups from Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu that we collectively had lived and worked among.

Oral Tradition & Literature (Storytelling) Course

2007-04-11T10:46:00.000-06:00

A graduate course on oral tradition and storytelling is going to be offered in Dallas from August 20 through September 17 during evenings at GIAL in Dallas. View pdf here.