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Durham E-Theses The return of the storyteller in contemporary literature Dragas, Areti How to cite: Dragas, Areti (2007) The return of the storyteller in contemporary literature, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2877/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk THE RETURN OF THE STORYTELLER IN CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE By Areti Dragas A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree The copyright of this thesis rests with the author or the university to which it was submitted. No quotation from it, or iDformation derived from it may be Doctor of Philosophy published without the prior written consent of the author or university, and any information derived from it should be acknowledged. Department of English Studies University of Durham 2007 THE RETURN OF THE STORYTELLER IN CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE By Areti Dragas ABSTRACT This thesis sets out to identify a growing interest in storytelling in contemporary literature, which I argue is reflected in the return of the figure of the storyteller. This interest in storytelling and stories seems to be inter-disciplinary and is reflected not only in literary critical discourses such as postmodemism and the postcolonialist interest in oral traditions, but also in areas such as cognitive and evolutionary science, which have presented stories as necessary for survival. However, despite this, the role of the storyteller has been relatively neglected in literary criticism and theory, a neglect that may have arisen in part because of the recent preoccupation with writing and textuality, which has led criticism to focus debates on the figure of the author. This thesis sets out to address this omission. The role of the storyteller in contemporary Western fiction is e?q)lored alongside some examples of postcolonial and hybrid fictions. I draw largely on methodologies fi-om narrative and postmodernist theory, and investigate the preoccupation of the storyteller through a reading of six contemporary authors chosen as a representative sample of contemporary fiction today. These are: Jim Grace, Mario Vargas Llosa, Salman Rushdie, John Barth, A.S. Byatt and J.M. Coetzee. Through the close reading of a selection of their novels, I reveal how the storyteller, and the art of storytelling, are genuine preoccupations in their works. Moreover, I show how, through their employment and problematisation of the figure of the storyteller, these writers all raise questions about the role and value of fiction and real authors. Surprisingly, the infemous 'death of the author' has produced a rebirth of the storyteller. The storyteller has returned and provides us with some new and usefiil tools with which to re-map the territories of contemporary fiction. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IV PREFACE 1 Why Oie Storyteller? 1 INTRODUCTION: TRACING THE STORYTELLER IN THEORY & CRITICISM 7 /; The Literature Frame and the Problem of Theory 8 Orality and Literacy 16 //; The Case of Literary Criticism 20 IIL Interpreting Benjamin's "The Storyteller" 32 Applications of "The Storyteller" to Literary Authors 40 Schema of Chapters 44 1 WHO IS THE STORYTELLER? 50 The Storyteller's Story 50 The Storyteller in Literature 51 A (Hi)Story of the Storyteller 55 Contemporary Storytellers 64 "Who are you labelling a storyteller?' 66 2 THE BIRTH OF THE STORYTELLER 77 Jim Grace's TTte Gift of Stones 77 The Flight of an Arrow 79 The Wound and the Bow 85 Invention, Storytelling and Survival 93 The Reverend Crace 98 3 STORYTELLER AS PROPHET 107 Mario Vargas Llosa's The Storyteller 107 The Meeting of Worlds; Novelist & Storyteller HI The Question of Authorship 115 Storytelling and Exile: Dante 118 Storytelling and Monstrosity: Frankenstein 122 Storytelling and Ethnic Marginalisation 129 Storytelling and the politics of Ethnos-Creation 135 4 STORYTELLER AS SATAN 141 Sabnan Rushdie's The Satanic Verses 141 Reality or Fiction 143 Who is the Author? 144 Where is the Author? 146 What is the Author: a Voice? 151 The Role of the Reader 155 The 'Real' Satanic Verses 159 History, Story and Postmodernism 164 5 STORYTELLER AS ORATOR 169 Salman Ruslidie's Haroun and tiie Sea of Stories 169 Children's Fairy-Tales 172 Reading Aloud and the Parent-Storyteller 174 Family Storytelling Traditions 181 The Arabian Nights 184 Storytelling for Survival 190 6 POSTMODERN STORY/RETELLER 195 John Barth's The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor 195 Postmodern Writer or Storyteller? 197 The Barthian "life-text" 201 Framing the Story 206 The Storyteller and His Audiaice 213 Naming the Storyteller 217 Scheherazade alias John Barth 221 7 STORYTELLER AS FAIRY-TALE TELLER 226 A. S. Byatt's 'The Djmn in the Nightingale's Eye" 226 Telling (Fairy)Tales 230 A return to the Nights 237 Death and Storytelling 242 Wishing and Bdieving 250 CONCLUSION: THE STORYTELLER RETURNS 257 /. Storytelling and Ae Intemationalisation of the Contemporary Novel 257 II. J. M. Coetzee: ProhlematisingAuthorship with Storytelling 263 BIBUOGRAPHY 279 111 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This tiiesis tells the story of the storyteller, but for the story to come into being, to become real and to be contained within these pages, there have been many people involved, besides the storyteller and myself. I would like to ejqjress my gratitude to all those who have accompanied me and assisted me in so many ways on the journey. Special thanks go to my supervisor Professor Patricia Waugh. I am deeply indebted to her and commend her ability to guide, encourage and also provide me with the fieedom to find my own path in the world of literary criticism and theory. With her encouragement, quiet wisdom and generosity, both personally and intellectually, she has not only allowed me to enjoy my research, but also helped foster a desire to continue to forge new paths. In this, I feel I have been especially fortunate. I would also like to acknowledge the love and support of my family, particularly that of my parents, who have helped in ways that these few words cannot describe. Thank you for believing in me, encouraging me and supporting me unquestioningly and always. Finally, I would like to thank all my friends who have offered their support and encouragement along the way, and especially my partner, Justin, who has been there fi-om the beginning, forever holding my hand. IV PREFACE Why the Storyteller? But in all the wonderful worlds that writing opens, the spoken word still resides and lives. Written texts all have to be related somehow, directly or indirectly, to the world of sound, the natural habitat of language, to yield their meanings. Walter Ong, Orality & Literacy This thesis began with an attempt to understand better the line between oral storytelling and written fiction. More specifically, it began with a questioning of the origins of the stories that live within the written woild of the novel. However, as I moved deeper and deeper into this area of research, the storyteller started to emerge as the quintessential figure that married the oral and written worlds together, and this idea became more and more compelling. Consequently, I began to question: what is the relation between telling and writing? Is not writing a type of telling? And if so, could we not call the 'writer-author' a 'storyteller'? More importantly, if we call the author 'storyteller', how does this change our perception and reading of literature? In this prefece I highlight the main reasons why I argue for the storyteller's retum to contemporary fiction. Although 'the author' has had a relatively well-documented history which has engendered an ever-thriving critical debate within literary studies, the story of oral storytelling traditions, along with the figure of the storyteller, is often less substantive. Moreover, despite the growing interest in post-colonial literatures which has traced links between oral storytelling and the written narrative tradition,' within ' For example, as in Native American writers such as Leslie Marmon Silko and Gerald Vizenor, or African writers such as Chinua Achebe and Ngugi wa Thiong'O as well as writers coming out of indigenous peoples from the Caribbean, New Zealand, Australia and occasionally Russia and Eastern Europe through skaz. the Western European and Anglo-American tradition, there has been fer less interest, hideed, outside this critical interest in post-colonial writers who come fi-om active oral storytelling cultures and traditions, European and Anglo-American literary history has concentrated on investigations of the author and the written word, blinkered by restrictive notions of 'literariness', hi other words, its focus has tended to be less on storytelling and the storyteller, and more on authorship and imphed narration. Stemming fixjm a long-standing cultural tradition that has privileged 'text', as part of a 'canon' of writing, perh^s it is no wonder that the storyteller has been neglected in relation to the author. The storyteller, instead, is most commonly thought of as belonging to folklore, to oral tradition, to a realm that lives well below the dizzying peaks of the mountain which is 'Literature'.