<p>What’s in a Story?</p><p>Telling Tales and Written Words: the same or different?</p><p>Dr Jacqueline Harrett</p><p>Presentation at the Atrium 15th May 2008</p><p>Often, when I read book reviews I am struck by the phrase ‘a good storyteller’. This refers to authors who hone and polish their craft until it is of publishable quality. </p><p>However, a storyteller, professional or otherwise, is also a person who tells, creates and recreates stories in usually in real time and with an audience present. This dichotomy is what I hope to explore with you this evening.</p><p>Maguire (2004) asserts that personal anecdotes are a powerful way to engage an audience so I am going to begin with a personal anecdote which I believe has relevance to the theme. My own particular interest in storytelling stems from my childhood. In the </p><p>Northern Ireland of my childhood the ‘craic’ was very important to everyone. My earliest literacy memories are of my father telling me stories. He is nearly eighty seven now and still telling tales. I used to snuggle up to him as he transported me to the land of the giants and the wee people and I was lost in the world of imagination. When he finished a story I would inevitably say, ‘Tell me another one, Daddy’ to which his reply was always, ‘It’s your turn now. You tell me one first.’ This was my introduction into storytelling so I grew up with the love of the oral story. Of course, when I became a reader I found that books also provided me with that escape from reality – something I think we all need in this hectic world we live in. Guy Claxton advocates ‘loafing about’ to engage the creative side. It’s something we have precious little of these days.</p><p>When I listen to, or read, a story I am taken to somewhere completely different. In my mind, I can see the landscapes unfold in front of me and hear the voices of the characters.</p><p>I know that this cinematic experience is shared by others as in a seminar given by Pat </p><p>D’Arcy in 2002 she confessed to a similar phenomenon. I’m sure many people here tonight also visualise as they listen or read. </p><p>This is one of the reasons why, when I wish children to have an understanding of different versions or modes of the same story I always start with the oral so that they may build their own images or impressions in their minds. It also enables children to see how the oral is the same but also different. My research is usually with very young children so story-reading tends to be with beautifully illustrated picture books presenting those children with a visual, and written, interpretation of the story. Once the illustrations are viewed one has already a representation in the subconscious which may, or may not, influence further visualisations. Ahlberg (2002) believes that those influences are present, whether we are aware of them or not. In a similar manner, I always prefer to read a book first before seeing a film as I want to build my own images of characters and places. </p><p>The similarities and differences between the two genres of storytelling and story-reading are what I hope to explore with you here this evening. I want to take you on a journey to examine these aspects and to consider how recordings, transcriptions and possibly digital stories fit into this journey from telling tales to written words.</p><p>At one point I thought oral stories and picture books were separate entities thinking that storytelling was with an audience and a story-reading was to an audience. A six year old put me right on that score. When asked which version of the story she preferred she said,</p><p>‘I liked it with the book when you used different voices’. Until that point I had not fully realized the performative element in story-reading to infants. One of the things about being a teacher, I suppose, is the instinctive techniques that one uses without being fully aware of. Until someone questions or makes an observation of teaching methods one uses one does not always fully reflect on those techniques. It took an infant to make me think more deeply about what actually happens when reading aloud to children. Now, when I think of storytelling and story-reading I have an image of overlapping circles, like a venn diagram. In one circle are the features of the oral and in the other those belonging to picture books. The intersection contains the common trends. Liz Weir (2007) in her seminar at the George Ewart Evans Storytelling Centre last year told us that when she started storytelling it was with a book and she perceives no discernible differences. Both modes are giving children the sounds and rhythms of the language and providing food for the imagination. However, although the edges are blurred and continue to become more so I think there are still some fundamental differences.</p><p>With regard to storytelling, Corden (2000) believed that storytelling can help make explicit differences between spoken and written language as, by telling and retelling to each other, children begin to understand how language works. In my own study I discovered that children layered in their retellings using remembered phrases from oral tales when retelling picture book versions. With each retelling they developed more confidence and took more ownership of the stories, realizing that with the oral one could be more flexible. Bearne (1998) explained a conversation between Sonnyboy and Emily.</p><p>Sonnyboy, a traveller, was an accomplished storyteller in oral mode, adapting and changing stories to suit the audience. Emily, who was from a different cultural background, had a different understanding. Emily insisted that a story must be written down, demonstrating that she knew the difference between an oral tale and that which is printed on the page; the written providing a permanence that the oral lacks.</p><p>Clark (1994: 52) believed that something else children learn from rereading of favourite stories is one of the ‘crucial features of print, that it says exactly the same thing on each occasion’, highlighting its permanence in contrast to the changes prevalent in oral tales. </p><p>The value of this permanence is illustrated in the assertions of Jordan (1996: 49) who insisted that picture books ‘deal with important human issues. Their themes include those areas of life, which concern adults as well as children: jealousy, anger, fear, friendship, family relationships and death.’ Jordan’s comments are echoed in the findings of Fox (1993: 22) who discovered that the young children in her study dealt with grave issues, such as ‘abandonment, punishment, pain and death, the anger of parents, the jealousy of siblings, loneliness and helplessness.’ Fox recorded the oral stories of young children and examined how the stories they heard from literature were echoed in their own personal oral stories; their storytellings. One is able to see similarities, despite the differences.</p><p>Storytellers of course, tend towards the oral tradition as it is their skill and trade. </p><p>Maddern, a storyteller and writer, (1992: 28) regarded storytelling as a more ‘complete form of communication’ with ‘neither the careful polish of literature nor the rehearsed spectacle of drama’ but, instead, a ‘unique form of improvisation created in the moment through the interplay of audience, storyteller and story.’ </p><p>This indicates that the reaction and interaction of the audience is an important feature in oral storytelling. The teller modifies and adjusts the pace and even the content of the story in response to the audience.</p><p>To demonstrate these similarities and differences I am going to tell you a story and then read the picture book version. I want you to try and imagine yourselves as six year olds. </p><p>Suck your thumb or put your heads on the table if you wish. The story I’ve chosen is </p><p>‘The North Wind and the Sun’. It stems from the oral tradition as these are generally strong stories that have withstood the test of time. Moyles and Robinson (2006:112) believe that these stories have lasted for so long ‘because they engage our imaginations and emotions so powerfully.’</p><p>Tell Story </p><p>Read story What do you see as the features of storytelling? Story-reading? Common trends? Take a few minutes and, with a partner, jot some notes down in three columns.</p><p>(Discussion time)</p><p>I have made my own list of features of each of these which are similar to those you have identified in your groups. For storytelling: spontaneity, flexibility, originality, ephemeral, passion, reaction and interaction are some of the features.</p><p>Story-reading is constrained by words, carefully crafted, permanence of print aided by illustrations, in a picture book text.</p><p>However, there is a grey area with features which encompass both genres. They are both performative, interpretative, involve active listening, are emotional and imaginative and require, what I term, visuality – one needs to either have some impressions or images or to see the artist’s interpretation of the story.</p><p>Now I want to consider how oral tales can be captured and what differences this may make to those stories. Once an oral text is contained in sound, video or transcription does it cease to be less an oral story and more a written one? </p><p>I have brought with me a book called ‘Country Cracks’ published in 1945 with a series of oral stories collected by the author in the years 1927-30 when he travelled around </p><p>Armagh and listened to the old folk. These old people were all between 70 and 93 years old then so long gone. Paterson wrote down their stories in a notebook as they spoke. </p><p>The stories are written in dialect to try to recreate the voices of these folk and I should like to read one of these stories to you to give you a taste.</p><p>And that’s no lie of a carried story</p><p>The author has tried to recreate the voice of the speaker, by use of dialect and spelling to indicate how the words should be spoken. One wonders if the very act of writing down has altered or changed this in some way. Paterson wrote these stories as the old folk spoke them so may have missed words or phrases or even pauses. Bearne ( 2000) postulates that the act of recording changes things.</p><p>If we consider the digital stories from the Capture Wales project we experienced last year then we have a further complication in this segregation of elements. These sometimes emotional and at other times humorous stories have many of the features of the oral. One hears the voice of the storyteller with still images to illustrate the stories and there certainly seems to be an element of spontaneity. However, these stories have been crafted over days, in some cases a script has been used and the delivery practised to ensure this feeling of spontaneity. Is this cheating or should we just regard it as a hybrid of the oral tradition? Ong (1993) asserts that literacy has altered our way of thinking and we cannot think in the same way as those who lived in an oral world. In a similar manner</p><p>I believe that technology has altered our way of viewing stories and, just as the written word is in some ways different from the oral, the digital story has elements of both the forms of storytelling and story-reading previously explored but with its own individual personality. There does not have to be a polarisation of these different modes. In fact the more one studies these similarities and differences the more one sees how they blend and merge. It’s a bit like seeing reading as totally separate from speaking and listening. The more one tries to pull the threads apart the more one sees how intertwined they are. </p><p>Street (1995) describes ‘literary myths’ involving differences between written and spoken language commenting that:</p><p>The implications of these differences are that speaking exhibits greater </p><p> attention to the involvement of participants, while in writing there is</p><p> greater emphasis on the content of what is said. (p 168) </p><p>In the future, as technology increases are we likely to see the DVD text superseding the book text? Will the content be more important than the involvement in story? </p><p>Increasingly more books are accompanied by CDs and DVDs. Is this a move away from the personal? Interestingly, I read this story ‘Can you catch a Mermaid?’ by Jane Ray to my students recently. I then showed them a DVD of the same story being read by the author. The pictures from the book were projected unto the screen interspersed with video of the author on the beach building a mermaid out of sand and shells. I asked them to make a few notes about the advantages and disadvantages of each mode of delivery and then held up both book and DVD and asked ‘If you had to make a choice which one would you have?’ Every student in the room wanted the book as they preferred the ‘real time’ reading which they found more interactive. I wonder if it would be the same for our six year olds who are more surrounded by the visual than ever? What place the oral tale in the future?</p><p>To return to the theme of this seminar and the differences between telling tales and written words Paterson (1945: 15) comments: </p><p>‘The magic of the telling of the stories can not be conveyed in lines of printed </p><p> sentences. I have heard them round a blazing peat fire and in the listening have </p><p> forgotten time and the world outside. I have sat upon a mossy bank when the </p><p> whins were in bloom and the air full of their peach-like fragrance, so entranced </p><p> that often I forgot to take the stories down.’</p><p>Perhaps that is the real difference between telling tales and written words – the magic, the indefinable spark that binds speaker and listeners in a shared journey through imagination. Maybe it’s the ephemeral nature of oral stories that makes them so appealing to listeners. Realising that each performance is unique, distinctive, exclusive and elusive adds a certain expectation and excitement to storytelling events.</p><p>Thank you for sharing the journey with me this evening. I’ve given more questions than answers so I hope this has given you some food for thought and further discussion. I should like to end with another brief story from this little gem, Country Cracks.</p><p>Three fellows lived here once. References:</p><p>Alhberg, A. (2002) ‘ Let my Children Go!’ Address to UKLA International Conference Reaching Out: Moving Forward: Developing Literacy Through Interaction, Chester July 13th</p><p>Claxton G. (2006) Learn to Loaf http://www.globalideasbank.org/Tips/TipJun20.html</p><p>Bearne, E. (1998 b) Use of Language across the Primary Curriculum London: Routledge </p><p>Bearne, E. (2000) Chapter 13 in Cliff Hodges, G., Drummond, M. J. & Styles, M. (eds.) Tales, Tellers and Texts London: Cassell</p><p>Clark, M. M. (1994) Young Literacy Learners Warkwickshire; Scholastic</p><p>Corden, R. (2000) Literacy and Learning Through Talk Buckingham : Open University Press</p><p>D’Arcy, P. (2002) Seminar on ‘Two Contrasting Paradigms’ at University of Wales Institute, Cardiff. 24th April.</p><p>Fox, C. (1993) At the very edge of the Forest; the influence of literature on storytelling by children London: Cassell </p><p>Jordan, B. (1996) in Watson, V. and Styles, M. (Eds) Talking Pictures London: Hodder & Stoughton</p><p>Maddern, E. (1992) A Teachers’ Guide to Storytelling at Historic Sites London: English Heritage</p><p>Maguire, J. (1998) The Power of Personal Storytelling New York: Jeremy P.Tarcher/Putnam</p><p>Ong, W. J. (1982) Orality and Literacy London: Routledge </p><p>Paterson, T. G. F. (1945) Country Cracks Dundalk: Dundalgan Press </p><p>Street, B. V. (1995) Social Literacies : London: Longman </p><p>Weir, L. (2007) Address at the George Ewart Evans Storytelling Centre</p>