DOCSLIB.ORG

Storytelling : a Cultural Studies Approach

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Storytelling : a Cultural Studies Approach STORYTELLING: A CULTURAL STUDIES APPROACH Qm Lindsay M. Brown B.A., University of Toronto, 1986 B.F.A., Nova Scotia College of Art and Desen, 1989 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN THE SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION @~indsa~M. Brown Simon Fraser University June 1997 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL t NAME: Lindsay Brown .- DEGREE: MA TITLE: Storytelling: A ~uliuralStudies Approach EXAMINING. COMMITTEE: CHAIR: Prof. William Richards ,' Prof. Pat Howard Supervisor School of Communication, SF-1 Prof. Jerald Zaslove Examiner English and Institute for the Humanities, SFU Date: 13 June 1997 ABSTRACT This thesis examines a phenomenon in which a number of stoqding practices appear to he enjoying a "revival:" these practices include public stowlling performances, oral 'w history projects, and a vast and growing popular literature which either incorporates or analyses "traditional" sto+s. At the same iirne. the thesis describes the c-nt widespread appeal of the idea of storytelling and all it signifies. Its research question asks why storytelling is currently the object of so much interest and desire. Little academic work on these twin phenomena has thus far been undertaken. This thesis serves in part toprovide a preliminary introduction to this popular but little studied area of interest. The conceptual framework for this discussion is based on interpretations of the cultural and political character of narrative and speech as elaborated in recent traditions of communication, critical and literary theory. A close analysis of the concepts and categories by which weqterners currently grasp the idea of storytelling is used as a case to examine these ideas. ' Through this analysis I show that the modern relation to storytelling is in part a relation to the idea of tradition. Many Westerners now look to the modes of communication of "traditional" cultures and knowledge systems in order to construct meaning as well as social and collective relations in new ways. The paradoxes and tensions of this relationship art: many. As the thesis shows, certain uses of storytelling participate in the reification, appropriation and commodification of the speech of past traditions as well as of contemporary 'marginal' cultures in what is a nostalgia industry, satisfying a contemporary longing for a simpler and a sanitized past. The thesis also describes other uses in which hearing and telling stories is a method of building historical consciousness in community and of imagining an alternative position-the past, other cultures-from which to critique the social formations of the present. he attempt to revive storytelling can be seen as part of an ongoing struggle to tind tools for living in an always changing contemporary context. The thesis addresses the question of why practices of storytelling have regained popularity in the west over the past three decades. I draw on the work of Walter Benjamin, Fredric Jameson, literary and critical theory to interpret the growing appeal of these narratives and to speculate on their cultural and social meanings. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As with the old stories, this thesis is the product of more than one voice. Research for this thesis involved conversation with hundreds of people, only a fraction of whom I can mention here. To all those who have offered their thoughts and insights on the subject of storytelling, thank you. Above all, I would like to thank Gail Faurschou, without whose very generous, painstaking help and friendly support this unwieldy project would not have been undertaken and this thesis would not have materialized. I am grateful for her friendship, her engaged and sustained interest in my work, and her unfailingly creative suggestions. I would also especially hke to thank everyone at the Vancouver Society of Storytelling, especially Helen O'Brian and Jill Baird, for generously sharing their knowledge, insight, support, and love of storytelling with me. Ginger Mullen, ~eresa Vandertuin, Doug Waite, Kim Fedor, Mary Moltrnan, and Linda Lines have all been delightful and helpful friends over the two years in which I researched this thesis. I am indebted to all those storytellers who inspired this project and who showed so much enthusiasm for it. I ain particularly grateful to the wonderful storyteller Dan Yashinsky for his thoughtful correspondence, humour, friendstup, and hls provocative writings on the storytelling art. It was Dan who first introduced me to Hodja Nasrudin stories in Whitehorse during the 1995 Yukon International Storytelling Festival. I would like to extend a very special thank-you to Meryl Arbing and Lome Brown, both of whom offered so many valuable thoughts and suggestions for this thesis and whose work on Appleseed Quarterly provided me with a wealth of material on storytelling. Joan Meade very kindly took me in during my research in Fredericton in 1995. I would like to thank Karyn Whitfield of The Storytellers School of Toronto for her encouragement and for first suggesting I talk to Dan Yashinsky about revival storytelling and its history in Canada. Jan Andrews in Ottawa, Melanie Ray in Vancouver and Kate Stevens in Victoria were all generous with their time and their encouragement and I am grateful to them all. I sadly regret that the First Nations storyteller Tom Heidelbaugh is no longer alive to share stories with children at risk from poverty and violence in Seattle and Tacoma, Washington. Conversations with Tom in 1995 first convinced me that storytelling was a valuable thing and worthy of more study than it has received. To these and all the other many storytellers who have spoken to me about stories and storytelling, thank you. LJ' LJ' Special thanks goes to Diana Arnbrozas, friend and one-person lending library, endless source of delightful and obscure novels, for our many conversations about narrative and cultural theory. Many of the ideas in this thesis were refined through conversations with Diana. I also owe Sourayan Mookerjea a big thank-you for his generosity with his extraordinarily wide-ranging knowledge of narrative, and for his J # . vi excellent coohng. Thanks also to all my other cblleagues at Simon Fraser who offered encouragement for this prbject and whose thinking contributed to it in so many ways: Wreford Miller, Janisse Browning, Stuart Poyntz, Ron Vida, Silva Tenenbein, Bev Best, Dorothy Kidd, and William Santiago-Valles. .I would like to thank Pat Howard and Alison Beale for their support throughout my time at Simon Fraser and for their interest in hsproject. I m especially grateful to Tony Wilden for many years of friindship and challenging talks and for his faith that the strategic use of language can help us get somewhere in the struggle against myth. - Lucie Menkveld, administrative assistant, and Neena Shahani, grad secretary, have been extraordinarily helpful with employment and adrninistrative'support, and 1 appreciate their consistent good humour and patience. Thank-you to everyone at the Banff Centre for the Arts and all the participants in the 1995 Artist's Residency "Telling Storieflelling Tales," especially Doma Brunsdale, Su Ditta, Lisa Brenneis, and Rodrigue Jean, all of whom tell stories in their own s~phisticated,experimental, and comedic ways. I am very grateful for their continuing friendship, encouragement, and conversation. I would also like to acknowledge the material support of the Bahff Centre during a phase of the research for this thesis. I owe a big thank you to all those old friends who have shared their stories and their reflections on stories with me over the years. I am particularly indebted to Lani Maestro and Stephen Home, who have been so formative of my thinking and so lund in their encouragement. As my teachers at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and during our years 'of work' together on Harbour Magazine, with all its stories, Stephen and Lani helped lay the seeds for this project. Dagmq Dahle, too has been a caring and supportive friend over many years. " I especially appreciate the support of my family during my research, particularly my parents, Alan 'and Alix Brown, and my sisters, Julie and Alison. My lifelong friend and favourite aunt Vicky Husband provided me with constant refuge in her house in the woods of Vancouver Island during the writing of this thesis, and Patrick Pothier, her partner in life, offered me his delightful company and stories of his storytelling uncle, Franlue Pothier, in pre- and post-war southern Nova Scotia. Last, but not least, I am affectionately grateful to my grandfather Harold Husband for his support, his extraordinary storytelling talent, and his ohsewation that my generation's stories have no point and no ending. Finally, I am very grateful to Andrew Carlisle for his constant support and encouragement, his always original and incisive comments on storytelling. the many hours he spent editing this work, and his ability not only to listen, but to hear. TABLE OF CONTENTS % Approval ...................................................................................... n ... Abstract ....................................................................................... u1 Acknowledgements ................L ................................................... v Table of Contents ......................................................................... vii Introduction .................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Ethnographer's Apprentice: Trying Consumer Culture Fron1. the Outside in John F
    Journal of Business Ethics (2008) 80:85-95 © Springer 2007 DOl 10.1007/s10551-007-9448-7 The Ethnographer's Apprentice: Trying Consumer Culture fron1. the Outside In John F. Sherry, Jr. ABSTRACT. Anthropologists have long wrestled with professor of marketing and an industry consultant, I their impact upon the people they study. Historically, the advise students and clients how best to accommodate discipline has served and subverted colonial agendas, but and resist this culture. I believe that an ethical views itself traditionally as an advocate for the disem­ approach to marketplace behavior is possible and powered and as an instrument ofpublic policy. Marketing necessary, but my grasp of such an approach more is now among the pre-eminent institutions of cultural resembles the Buddhist parable of the blind men and stability and change at work on the planet. Currently, the elephant with each recounting. Depending upon ethnography is assuming a growing importance in the marketer's effort to influence the accommodation and which horn of a dilenmu I grab, I sense a snake, a resistance of consumers to the neocolonial forces of coluom or a granary, as my (mis)understanding shifts globalization. The ethical consequences of market-ori­ with each new purchase. That's why I've adopted such ented ethnography are explored in this essay. a punning title for this effort. I provide a personal account, through the prism of KEY WORDS: anthropology, consumerism, ethnogra­ my experience as a disciplinary interloper, of phy, globalization, marketing anthropology's engagement with the marketplace. The ambivalence of my home discipline has increased, as ethnography has become a current methodological darling of the market research community.
    [Show full text]
  • A Definition of Folklore: a Personal Narrative
    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Department of Near Eastern Languages and Departmental Papers (NELC) Civilizations (NELC) 2014 A Definition of olklorF e: A Personal Narrative Dan Ben-Amos University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/nelc_papers Part of the Folklore Commons, Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons, and the Oral History Commons Recommended Citation Ben-Amos, D. (2014). A Definition of olklorF e: A Personal Narrative. Estudis de Literatura Oral Popular (Studies in Oral Folk Literature), 3 9-28. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/nelc_papers/141 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/nelc_papers/141 For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Definition of olklorF e: A Personal Narrative Abstract My definition of folklore as "artistic communication in small groups" was forged in the context of folklore studies of the 1960s, in the discontent with the definitions that were current at the time, and under the influence of anthropology, linguistics - particularly 'the ethnography of speaking' - and Russian formalism. My field esearr ch among the Edo people of Nigeria had a formative impact upon my conception of folklore, when I observed their storytellers, singers, dancers and diviners in performance. The response to the definition was initially negative, or at best ambivalent, but as time passed, it took a more positive turn. Keywords context, communication, definition, performance,
    [Show full text]
  • Teaching Values Through Fables
    LESSON 10 Museum Connection: Family and Community Lesson Title: Teaching Values through Fables Purpose: In this lesson students will analyze two fables—one African, the other African American—in order to explain how fables are used to impart cultural values from one generation to the next. Applying what they have learned about the interaction of narrative elements in a fable, students will create a modern fable of their own. Grade Level and Content Area: Middle, Language Arts and Social Studies Time Frame: 3-5 class periods Correlation to State Social Studies Standards: PNW 7.2 Students understand how individuals, groups, and institutions sustain and influence cultures. Social Studies: Maryland College and Career Ready Standards 2.A.1.a (Grade 7) Apply understandings of the elements of culture to the studies of modern world regions, such as art, music, religion, government, social structure, education, values, beliefs and customs. 2.B.1.a (Grade 8) Describe the effects of cultural exchange and interactions among Europeans, Africans and Native Americans on the development of the United States. Correlation to State Reading and English Language Arts Maryland College and Career Ready Standards: 3.A.3.b (Grades 6 and 7) Analyze the conflict and the events of the plot. 3.A.3.b (Grade 8) Analyze the conflict and its role in advancing the plot. 3.A.3.e (Grades 6, 7, and 8) Analyze relationships between and among characters, setting, and events. 1.E.1.a (Grades 6, 7, and 8) Listen to critically, read, and discuss texts representing diversity in content, culture, authorship, and perspective, including areas such as race, gender, disability, religion, and socio-economic background.
    [Show full text]
  • Seek out the Voice of the Critic (Pdf)
    SEEK OUT THE VOICE OF THE CRITIC By Ben Haggarty A New Foreword (2005) Re-reading this version of a talk that I gave ten years ago, I’m struck that it now looks almost like a prologue to a book that has yet to be written. ‘Seek Out the Voice of the Critic’, published and edited by the Society for Storytelling, reported my stocktaking of how the Storytelling revival in England and Wales stood in 1995. It was intended to be a clarion call to action, polemical, even provocative, and in the course of its argument it formulated more than 40 questions to stimulate further thought and debate. And forgive me if this new foreword continues that approach. During the intervening ten years very many marvellous things have happened to storytelling on the Island of Britain. There has been growth in all directions. The Scottish, liberated by devolution and powered by national pride have been able to create a fabulous permanent Centre for Scottish Storytelling in the Netherbow Centre in Edinburgh. In Wales, The Beyond the Border Wales International Storytelling Festival has established itself as Europe’s most ‘festive’ of festivals, and recently a new initiative, The George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling, has been launched under the auspices of the University of Glamorgan. Hugh Lupton and Eric Maddern’s annual ‘Storytelling in the Mythological Landscape’ retreat is in its 12th year. In England, The Festival at the Edge is the first – and only – English storytelling organisation to have secured regular ‘revenue’ funding from the Arts Council of England.
    [Show full text]
  • Folklore and the Hebrew Bible: Interdisciplinary Engagement and New Directions
    humanities Article Folklore and the Hebrew Bible: Interdisciplinary Engagement and New Directions Susan Niditch Department of Religion, Amherst College, Amherst, MA 01002, USA; [email protected] Received: 16 November 2017; Accepted: 1 January 2018; Published: 10 January 2018 Abstract: This essay explores the rich interactions between the fields of folklore and biblical studies over the course of the 20th century until the present. The essay argues for the continued relevance of folklore and related fields to an appreciation of ancient Israelite cultures and their artistic inventions. It concludes with several case studies that underscore the fruitful realizations that emerge from this sort of interdisciplinary humanistic work. Keywords: form-criticism; oral tradition; formula; morphology; typology; social context; performance 1. Introduction The fields of biblical studies and folklore studies have always shared much in terms of content and methodology. Readers of the Hebrew Bible encounter narratives about the exploits of heroes and the creation of the world, they find descriptions of ritual actions rich in symbolic media, saying forms akin to proverbs and riddles, and verbal repetitions of various kinds betokening formulaic and traditional styles of speech—a corpus richly suggestive of folklore. Biblicists’ interests in life settings, prosody, literary forms, reception, and redaction in many ways, moreover, parallel those of folklorists who emphasize performance contexts and cultural settings, the texture, content, and structures of various folk genres, the significance of these aspects of genre for an appreciation of message, and the importance of developments in stories and other media across time and place. The scholarly interrelationship between the study of the Hebrew Bible and folklore studies has a long, complicated history.
    [Show full text]
  • Music for the People: the Folk Music Revival
    MUSIC FOR THE PEOPLE: THE FOLK MUSIC REVIVAL AND AMERICAN IDENTITY, 1930-1970 By Rachel Clare Donaldson Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in History May, 2011 Nashville, Tennessee Approved Professor Gary Gerstle Professor Sarah Igo Professor David Carlton Professor Larry Isaac Professor Ronald D. Cohen Copyright© 2011 by Rachel Clare Donaldson All Rights Reserved For Mary, Laura, Gertrude, Elizabeth And Domenica ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would not have been able to complete this dissertation had not been for the support of many people. Historians David Carlton, Thomas Schwartz, William Caferro, and Yoshikuni Igarashi have helped me to grow academically since my first year of graduate school. From the beginning of my research through the final edits, Katherine Crawford and Sarah Igo have provided constant intellectual and professional support. Gary Gerstle has guided every stage of this project; the time and effort he devoted to reading and editing numerous drafts and his encouragement has made the project what it is today. Through his work and friendship, Ronald Cohen has been an inspiration. The intellectual and emotional help that he provided over dinners, phone calls, and email exchanges have been invaluable. I greatly appreciate Larry Isaac and Holly McCammon for their help with the sociological work in this project. I also thank Jane Anderson, Brenda Hummel, and Heidi Welch for all their help and patience over the years. I thank the staffs at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the Kentucky Library and Museum, the Archives at the University of Indiana, and the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress (particularly Todd Harvey) for their research assistance.
    [Show full text]
  • FOLKLORE I N the MASS MEDIA Priscilla Denby Folklore Institute Indiana University As the Accompanying Cartoon (See Appendix ) Su
    FOLKLORE IN THE MASS MEDIA Priscilla Denby Folklore Institute Indiana University As the accompanying cartoon (see Appendix ) suggests ,l the disclosure of the powerful phenomenon known as the "media" in contemporary society is analogous to the opening of Pandora's box. It would seem that the media, a relatively new societal force, has literally "sprung up, It full-grown, in some mysterious fashion to the surprise and bewilderment of many -- and the consternation of a few -- and become a dominant influence in our cul- ture. Moreover, in keeping with the mythological analogy, it may be safe to assume that the artist equates the media with the societal ills which were released st the touch of Pandora's hand. Whether the media is indeed a general evil in present-day American society is debatable; what is to be briefly discussed here, however, is its effect upon, and how it is affected by, folklore. Based upon the small sampling of data collected in this study, I would tentatively hold that the media's influence upon and use of folklore has undergone a great change. In the 1920's and 1930's when American society seemed to be in need of some kind of folk image as a means of self-definition and identification, the media graciously obliged; the result was a virtual inundation of the "fakelore" typified by the "folk hero" tradition of a Paul Bunyan or a Johnny Appleseed. Today such figures still inhabit the media. Yet as far as I can tell, contemporary media is less cmcerned with the invention and promulgation of non-traditional lore and more concerned with traditional texts used in various contexts.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ghostmodern: Revisionist Haunting in Turn-Of-The-Century American Literature (1887-1910)
    THE GHOSTMODERN: REVISIONIST HAUNTING IN TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE (1887-1910) by MATH TRAFTON B.A., University of Colorado, 2003 B.S., University of Colorado, 2003 M.A., University of Colorado, 2005 M.A., University of Colorado, 2008 A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Comparative Literature 2013 This dissertation titled: The Ghostmodern: Revisionist Haunting in Turn-of-the-Century American Literature (1887-1910) written by Math Trafton has been approved for the Department of Comparative Literature Dr. Karen Jacobs, committee chair Dr. Mark Leiderman Dr. Eric White Dr. Sue Zemka Date The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we Find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards Of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. iii Trafton, Math (Ph.D., Comparative Literature) The Ghostmodern: Revisionist Haunting in Turn-of-the-Century American Literature (1887- 1910) Dissertation directed by Associate Professor Karen Jacobs This project attempts to identify and explain numerous significant transformations in the genre of the literary ghost story in the period roughly contemporary with the earliest emergence of literary Modernism. Through a detailed examination of the literary encounters with invisibility in pivotal American ghost stories from the end of the twentieth century, the project considers the rich literary trope of ghostly haunting according to its capacity to provoke an engagement with marginalized, liminal spaces. In traditional ghost stories, however, as ghosts are ultimately overcome and order is restored, normative structures resume, and such engagements are trivialized.
    [Show full text]
  • Storytelling
    Please do not remove this page Storytelling Anderson, Katie Elson https://scholarship.libraries.rutgers.edu/discovery/delivery/01RUT_INST:ResearchRepository/12643385580004646?l#13643502170004646 Anderson, K. E. (2010). Storytelling. SAGE. https://doi.org/10.7282/T35T3HSK This work is protected by copyright. You are free to use this resource, with proper attribution, for research and educational purposes. Other uses, such as reproduction or publication, may require the permission of the copyright holder. Downloaded On 2021/09/24 13:02:38 -0400 Chapter 28- 21st Century Anthropology: A Reference Handbook Edited by H. James Birx Storytelling Katie Elson Anderson, Rutgers University. Once upon a time before words were written, before cultures and societies were observed and analyzed there was storytelling. Storytelling has been a part of humanity since people were able to communicate and respond to the basic biological urge to explain, educate and enlighten. Cave drawings, traditional dances, poems, songs, and chants are all examples of early storytelling. Stories pass on historical, cultural, and moral information and provide escape and relief from the everyday struggle to survive. Storytelling takes place in all cultures in a variety of different forms. Studying these forms requires an interdisciplinary approach involving anthropology, psychology, linguistics, history, library science, theater, media studies and other related disciplines. New technologies and new approaches have brought about a renewed interest in the varied aspects and elements of storytelling, broadening our understanding and appreciation of its complexity. What is Storytelling? Defining storytelling is not a simple matter. Scholars from a variety of disciplines, professional and amateur storytellers, and members of the communities where the stories dwell have not come to a consensus on what defines storytelling.
    [Show full text]
  • World Myths and Folktales: the Stories of Human Kind
    9/12/2016 Language Arts Ms. Muhlbaier Literary Significance Myths and folktales are the world’s oldest stories, passed on by word of mouth from generation to generation. Stories have always played a significant role since the dawning of humankind. 1 9/12/2016 Literary Significance Myths and folktales remain vital to modern readers because they reveal common truths, patterns, and themes that are familiar to all ages and cultures. Myths explain the human experience: Who we are Where we came from What we believe in “…myths and folktales are in some ways even ‘truer’ than history.” -Joseph Campbell 2 9/12/2016 What is a Myth? An anonymous, traditional story that explains a belief, custom, or mysterious natural phenomenon. Functions of Myths: To explain the creation of the world and universe. To explain the human condition: how and why people were created, why they are flawed, why there is suffering in the world, why people must eventually die, and what happens to people after death. To explain natural phenomena—i.e. phases of the moon. 3 9/12/2016 Functions of Myths: To explain the nature of gods and goddesses and how these deities and human beings interact. To explain the meanings behind religious rituals, customs, and beliefs. To explain historical events. To teach moral lessons. Myths were created out of a human need to make sense of the universe and explain how the world and its inhabitants came to be. 4 9/12/2016 The Differences Between Myths and Folktales As myths were retold and retold over generations, they transformed.
    [Show full text]
  • Myths and Legends
    Name Class ( ) Myths and Legends A myth is a traditional story that explains the beliefs of a people about the natural and human world. The main characters in myths are usually gods or supernatural heroes. The stories are set in the distant past. The people who told these stories believed that they were true. A legend is a traditional story about the past. The main characters are usually kings or heroes. Some examples of well-known legends include the tales of Odysseus from Ancient Greece, Beowulf from the Norse lands and King Arthur from Old England. Like myths, legends were thought to be true. Mythology is a body of myths and legends from a particular region and culture. Some examples are Greek Mythology, Roman Mythology, Norse Mythology, Celtic Mythology and Chinese Mythology. Many cultures have creation myths, which explain how the world came to be. These stories are interesting to read and compare. Useful websites: http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/mff/myths.htm An introduction to different myths and cultures around the world http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/mff/mythmachine.htm A website where students can create their own myths http://mythicjourneys.org/bigmyth/2_eng_myths.htm An interactive website with audio, visuals, texts and supporting materials, featuring 25 myths from various regions and cultures http://myths.e2bn.org/mythsandlegends/ A large collection of myths and legends from Britain and other parts of the world Here is another useful resource for exploring myths: ‘Two Greek Myths’ in Teen Time Remix: Using Authentic Materials for Developing Secondary Students’ Listening Skills, English Language Education Section, CDI, EDB, HKSAR, 2008.
    [Show full text]
  • Telling Tales a Guide to Developing Effective Storytelling Programmes
    Telling tales A guide to developing effective storytelling programmes for museums Researched and written by Emily Johnsson Edited by Claire Adler ‘We are stories. We make sense of the world through stories. We make meaning out of stories and remember through stories.’ ISBN 1-905911-01-7 © London Museums Hub 2006 Cover quote Jane Cockcroft, Handel House Museum Unless otherwise stated, copyright for photographs rests with the London Museums Hub. Designed and produced by Natural, 55 Charterhouse Street, London EC1M 6HA Tel: 020 7490 4575 www.naturalassociates.com Contents Introduction by Professor Jack Lohman 2 Step 3: Commissioning the right storyteller What is oral storytelling? 3 for your storytelling event 17 Step-by-step guide: to organising a Creating a brief for your storyteller 17 Standards in storytelling: Finding a good storyteller 18 storytelling programme in your museum, Decide: What type of storyteller do you want? 19 art gallery or historic house Case Study 5: Greenwich Heritage Centre 21 Step 1: Why choose storytelling? 5 Step 4: Preparing and supervising your General reasons for choosing storytelling 6 storytelling event 23 Case Study 1: Livesey Museum for Children 7 Reasons for choosing storytelling in museums, galleries and historic houses 8 Promotion and evaluation Case Study 2: Historic Royal Palaces 9 Promoting your storytelling event 25 Evaluating your storytelling event 26 Step 2: What do you want to do at your Planning sheet for storytelling event 27 storytelling event? 11 Contacts 30 Acknowledgements 32 Decide: The specific objectives for your storytelling event 11 Notes 33 Decide: How long will your event last? 12 Decide: Where will the event take place? 12 Decide: Who will participate? 12 Decide: How will the audience participate? 12 What is participatory story building? 12 Case Study 3: Discover, Stratford 13 Decide: What kinds of stories will be told during your story event? 14 Case Study 4: Handel House Museum 15 1 Introduction by Professor Jack Lohman Storytelling is at the heart of what many museums do.
    [Show full text]