Paul Borgman
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195331608
- eISBN:
- 9780199868001
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331608.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
“Who is David?” asks a wealthy and churlish land‐owner, Nabal, in a belittling manner (I Samuel, 25:2). “Whose son is this man?” asks Israel's first king, Saul, as David goes out to fight Goliath—in ...
More
“Who is David?” asks a wealthy and churlish land‐owner, Nabal, in a belittling manner (I Samuel, 25:2). “Whose son is this man?” asks Israel's first king, Saul, as David goes out to fight Goliath—in spite of the narrative fact that David has already been introduced to Saul. “Who am I, O Lord God?” asks David later in the story, after Saul's death and his own rise to power: “who am I….that you have brought me this far?” (II, 7:18). Uncovering and solving this story's implicit questions—and explicit, as above—depends on close attention to the dozen or so broad patterns of repetition governing the narrative's progress. The ancient storyteller relied on techniques of repetition geared for skilled listeners, and within these various kinds of repetition were discovered the story's embedded meaning, its mysteries of character, action, and moral vision.Less
“Who is David?” asks a wealthy and churlish land‐owner, Nabal, in a belittling manner (I Samuel, 25:2). “Whose son is this man?” asks Israel's first king, Saul, as David goes out to fight Goliath—in spite of the narrative fact that David has already been introduced to Saul. “Who am I, O Lord God?” asks David later in the story, after Saul's death and his own rise to power: “who am I….that you have brought me this far?” (II, 7:18). Uncovering and solving this story's implicit questions—and explicit, as above—depends on close attention to the dozen or so broad patterns of repetition governing the narrative's progress. The ancient storyteller relied on techniques of repetition geared for skilled listeners, and within these various kinds of repetition were discovered the story's embedded meaning, its mysteries of character, action, and moral vision.
Emily Baragwanath
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199231294
- eISBN:
- 9780191710797
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231294.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter addresses Herodotus' relationship with his major narrative model, Homer, whose techniques Herodotus appropriates and develops. Homer's depiction of motivation supplies a perspective in ...
More
This chapter addresses Herodotus' relationship with his major narrative model, Homer, whose techniques Herodotus appropriates and develops. Homer's depiction of motivation supplies a perspective in which to view Herodotus' methods: the epic storyteller's stance of omniscience illuminates the wholly different position of the historian—whose access to events is compromised by differences in time and space.Less
This chapter addresses Herodotus' relationship with his major narrative model, Homer, whose techniques Herodotus appropriates and develops. Homer's depiction of motivation supplies a perspective in which to view Herodotus' methods: the epic storyteller's stance of omniscience illuminates the wholly different position of the historian—whose access to events is compromised by differences in time and space.
Alexa Alfer
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719066528
- eISBN:
- 9781781701751
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719066528.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This comprehensive study of A. S. Byatt's work spans virtually her entire career and offers readings of all of her works of fiction up to and including her Man-Booker-shortlisted novel The Children's ...
More
This comprehensive study of A. S. Byatt's work spans virtually her entire career and offers readings of all of her works of fiction up to and including her Man-Booker-shortlisted novel The Children's Book (2009). The chapters combine an overview of Byatt's œuvre to date with close critical analysis of all her major works. The book also considers Byatt's critical writings and journalism, situating her beyond the immediate context of her fiction. The chapters argue that Byatt is not only important as a storyteller, but also as an eminent critic and public intellectual. Advancing the concept of ‘critical storytelling’ as a hallmark of Byatt's project as a writer, the chapters retrace Byatt's wide-ranging engagement with both literary and critical traditions. This results in positioning Byatt in the wider literary landscape.Less
This comprehensive study of A. S. Byatt's work spans virtually her entire career and offers readings of all of her works of fiction up to and including her Man-Booker-shortlisted novel The Children's Book (2009). The chapters combine an overview of Byatt's œuvre to date with close critical analysis of all her major works. The book also considers Byatt's critical writings and journalism, situating her beyond the immediate context of her fiction. The chapters argue that Byatt is not only important as a storyteller, but also as an eminent critic and public intellectual. Advancing the concept of ‘critical storytelling’ as a hallmark of Byatt's project as a writer, the chapters retrace Byatt's wide-ranging engagement with both literary and critical traditions. This results in positioning Byatt in the wider literary landscape.
Annette Insdorf
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252036859
- eISBN:
- 9780252093975
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252036859.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
American director Philip Kaufman is hard to pin down: a visual stylist who is truly literate, a San Franciscan who often makes European films, he is an accessible storyteller with a sophisticated ...
More
American director Philip Kaufman is hard to pin down: a visual stylist who is truly literate, a San Franciscan who often makes European films, he is an accessible storyteller with a sophisticated touch. Celebrated for his vigorous, sexy, and reflective cinema, Kaufman is best known for his masterpiece The Unbearable Lightness of Being and the astronaut saga The Right Stuff. His latest film, Hemingway & Gellhorn, stars Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen. This book argues that the stylistic and philosophical richness of Kaufman's cinema makes him a versatile auteur. It demonstrates Kaufman's skill at adaptation, how he finds the precise cinematic device for a story drawn from seemingly unadaptable sources, and how his eye translates the authorial voice from books that serve as inspiration for his films. Closely analyzing his movies to date (including Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Wanderers, and Quills) the book links them by exploring the recurring and resonant themes of sensuality, artistic creation, codes of honor, and freedom from manipulation. While there is no overarching label or bold signature that can be applied to his oeuvre, the book illustrates the consistency of themes, techniques, images, and concerns that permeates all of Kaufman's works.Less
American director Philip Kaufman is hard to pin down: a visual stylist who is truly literate, a San Franciscan who often makes European films, he is an accessible storyteller with a sophisticated touch. Celebrated for his vigorous, sexy, and reflective cinema, Kaufman is best known for his masterpiece The Unbearable Lightness of Being and the astronaut saga The Right Stuff. His latest film, Hemingway & Gellhorn, stars Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen. This book argues that the stylistic and philosophical richness of Kaufman's cinema makes him a versatile auteur. It demonstrates Kaufman's skill at adaptation, how he finds the precise cinematic device for a story drawn from seemingly unadaptable sources, and how his eye translates the authorial voice from books that serve as inspiration for his films. Closely analyzing his movies to date (including Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Wanderers, and Quills) the book links them by exploring the recurring and resonant themes of sensuality, artistic creation, codes of honor, and freedom from manipulation. While there is no overarching label or bold signature that can be applied to his oeuvre, the book illustrates the consistency of themes, techniques, images, and concerns that permeates all of Kaufman's works.
ROGER PEARSON
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198158806
- eISBN:
- 9780191673375
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198158806.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter discusses the concepts of conte, the conte philosophique, and the importance of the readers to Voltaire and his different narrative works. Based on the discussions presented in this ...
More
This chapter discusses the concepts of conte, the conte philosophique, and the importance of the readers to Voltaire and his different narrative works. Based on the discussions presented in this chapter, it can be determined that Voltaire's success as a storyteller is through his natural talent as a raconteur and how most of his works are written in the central narrative.Less
This chapter discusses the concepts of conte, the conte philosophique, and the importance of the readers to Voltaire and his different narrative works. Based on the discussions presented in this chapter, it can be determined that Voltaire's success as a storyteller is through his natural talent as a raconteur and how most of his works are written in the central narrative.
Jordynn Jack
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252038372
- eISBN:
- 9780252096259
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252038372.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
The reasons behind the increase in autism diagnoses have become hotly contested in the media as well as within the medical, scholarly, and autistic communities. This book suggests the proliferating ...
More
The reasons behind the increase in autism diagnoses have become hotly contested in the media as well as within the medical, scholarly, and autistic communities. This book suggests the proliferating number of discussions point to autism as a rhetorical phenomenon that engenders attempts to persuade through arguments, appeals to emotions, and representational strategies. The book focuses on the ways gender influences popular discussion and understanding of autism's causes and effects. It identifies gendered theories like the “refrigerator mother” theory, for example, which blames emotionally distant mothers for autism, and the “extreme male brain” theory, which links autism to the modes of systematic thinking found in male computer geeks. The book's analysis reveals how people employ such highly gendered theories to craft rhetorical narratives around stock characters—fix-it dads, heroic mother warriors rescuing children from autism—that advocate for ends beyond the story itself while also allowing the storyteller to gain authority, understand the disorder, and take part in debates. The book reveals the ways we build narratives around controversial topics while offering new insights into the ways rhetorical inquiry can and does contribute to conversations about gender and disability.Less
The reasons behind the increase in autism diagnoses have become hotly contested in the media as well as within the medical, scholarly, and autistic communities. This book suggests the proliferating number of discussions point to autism as a rhetorical phenomenon that engenders attempts to persuade through arguments, appeals to emotions, and representational strategies. The book focuses on the ways gender influences popular discussion and understanding of autism's causes and effects. It identifies gendered theories like the “refrigerator mother” theory, for example, which blames emotionally distant mothers for autism, and the “extreme male brain” theory, which links autism to the modes of systematic thinking found in male computer geeks. The book's analysis reveals how people employ such highly gendered theories to craft rhetorical narratives around stock characters—fix-it dads, heroic mother warriors rescuing children from autism—that advocate for ends beyond the story itself while also allowing the storyteller to gain authority, understand the disorder, and take part in debates. The book reveals the ways we build narratives around controversial topics while offering new insights into the ways rhetorical inquiry can and does contribute to conversations about gender and disability.
Coralynn V. Davis
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252038426
- eISBN:
- 9780252096303
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252038426.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
Constrained by traditions restricting their movements and speech, the Maithil women of Nepal and India have long explored individual and collective life experiences by sharing stories with one ...
More
Constrained by traditions restricting their movements and speech, the Maithil women of Nepal and India have long explored individual and collective life experiences by sharing stories with one another. Sometimes fantastical, sometimes including a kind of magical realism, these tales allow women to build community through a deeply personal and always evolving storytelling form. This book examines how these storytellers weave together their own life experiences—the hardships and the pleasures—with age-old themes. In so doing, the book demonstrates, they harness folk traditions to grapple personally as well as collectively with social values, behavioral mores, relationships, and cosmological questions. Each chapter includes stories and excerpts that reveal Maithil women's gift for rich language, layered plots, and stunning allegory. In addition, the book provides ethnographic and personal information that reveal the complexity of women's own lives, and includes works painted by Maithil storytellers to illustrate their tales. The result is a fascinating study of being and becoming that will resonate for readers in women's and Hindu studies, folklore, and anthropology.Less
Constrained by traditions restricting their movements and speech, the Maithil women of Nepal and India have long explored individual and collective life experiences by sharing stories with one another. Sometimes fantastical, sometimes including a kind of magical realism, these tales allow women to build community through a deeply personal and always evolving storytelling form. This book examines how these storytellers weave together their own life experiences—the hardships and the pleasures—with age-old themes. In so doing, the book demonstrates, they harness folk traditions to grapple personally as well as collectively with social values, behavioral mores, relationships, and cosmological questions. Each chapter includes stories and excerpts that reveal Maithil women's gift for rich language, layered plots, and stunning allegory. In addition, the book provides ethnographic and personal information that reveal the complexity of women's own lives, and includes works painted by Maithil storytellers to illustrate their tales. The result is a fascinating study of being and becoming that will resonate for readers in women's and Hindu studies, folklore, and anthropology.
Peta Mayer
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781789620597
- eISBN:
- 9781789629927
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781789620597.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
The epilogue reads Hotel du Lac through the figure of the storyteller, which it links to the genius woman writer, and argues that Brookner’s Booker Prize winner proleptically anticipates her ...
More
The epilogue reads Hotel du Lac through the figure of the storyteller, which it links to the genius woman writer, and argues that Brookner’s Booker Prize winner proleptically anticipates her aestheticist emphasis on beauty, form and technique. Utilising Walter Benjamin’s essay on the storyteller, and iconic figures of Staël, Colette, Woolf and Proust, the storyteller is produced through narratives of exile and return and focuses on the craft of the writer and artist persona including misreading, reversal, orality, frame narrative, epistolary form, paraprosdokian and anagnorisis. Colette’s The Pure and the Impure helps contextualise Edith’s scopophilic fascination with the mother/daughter pairing of Iris and Jennifer Pusey, which symptomise as a homoerotic narrative excess in the unsent letters to her lover. Edith’s queer preoccupations further illuminate the satirical treatement of gender, love, marriage and the heterosexual romance narrative in Hotel du Lac and more broadly in Brookner’s oeuvre. Like most Brooknerines, Edith rejects conventional romance for the romance of art and women’s writing. In conclusion, this chapter reviews the cross-historical intertextual performance of creative male gender through the contemporary female subject which sanctions a host of queer possibilities between female characters and plotlines. It celebrates Brookner as consummate aesthete, artist and storyteller.Less
The epilogue reads Hotel du Lac through the figure of the storyteller, which it links to the genius woman writer, and argues that Brookner’s Booker Prize winner proleptically anticipates her aestheticist emphasis on beauty, form and technique. Utilising Walter Benjamin’s essay on the storyteller, and iconic figures of Staël, Colette, Woolf and Proust, the storyteller is produced through narratives of exile and return and focuses on the craft of the writer and artist persona including misreading, reversal, orality, frame narrative, epistolary form, paraprosdokian and anagnorisis. Colette’s The Pure and the Impure helps contextualise Edith’s scopophilic fascination with the mother/daughter pairing of Iris and Jennifer Pusey, which symptomise as a homoerotic narrative excess in the unsent letters to her lover. Edith’s queer preoccupations further illuminate the satirical treatement of gender, love, marriage and the heterosexual romance narrative in Hotel du Lac and more broadly in Brookner’s oeuvre. Like most Brooknerines, Edith rejects conventional romance for the romance of art and women’s writing. In conclusion, this chapter reviews the cross-historical intertextual performance of creative male gender through the contemporary female subject which sanctions a host of queer possibilities between female characters and plotlines. It celebrates Brookner as consummate aesthete, artist and storyteller.
Lisa Yoneyama
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520085862
- eISBN:
- 9780520914896
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520085862.003.0004
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter considers the institutional and discursive contexts within which the Hiroshima survivors' identities as hibakusha were rendered multiple and complex as they began to actively adopt ...
More
This chapter considers the institutional and discursive contexts within which the Hiroshima survivors' identities as hibakusha were rendered multiple and complex as they began to actively adopt identities as witnesses and storytellers. It explores how these categories encouraged survivors to recollect and narrate their experiences as something inextricably embedded in their entire life stories. The survivors often engage in their testimonial practices while accompanying pilgrims to Hiroshima on memorial tours.Less
This chapter considers the institutional and discursive contexts within which the Hiroshima survivors' identities as hibakusha were rendered multiple and complex as they began to actively adopt identities as witnesses and storytellers. It explores how these categories encouraged survivors to recollect and narrate their experiences as something inextricably embedded in their entire life stories. The survivors often engage in their testimonial practices while accompanying pilgrims to Hiroshima on memorial tours.
Michael Jackson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520272330
- eISBN:
- 9780520951914
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520272330.003.0011
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Religion
This chapter begins with the author's story of how a compelling passage in Siri Hustvedt's essay “Yonder” immediately brought to his mind the life and work of the painter Ian Fairweather. It then ...
More
This chapter begins with the author's story of how a compelling passage in Siri Hustvedt's essay “Yonder” immediately brought to his mind the life and work of the painter Ian Fairweather. It then explores the thesis that art and philosophy carry the risk of estranging us from the world at the same time that they hold out the promise of helping us reengage more adroitly with it. It is perhaps this ambiguity that makes us suspicious of thinkers and artists, for they unsettle our certainties as well as show us new ways of understanding our existence. The author describes the life and work of a Kuranko storyteller, in an attempt to bring into sharper relief the struggle that lies at the heart of all imaginative activity, both intellectual and artistic, to strike and sustain a balance between distancing oneself from the world and achieving a more vital involvement with it.Less
This chapter begins with the author's story of how a compelling passage in Siri Hustvedt's essay “Yonder” immediately brought to his mind the life and work of the painter Ian Fairweather. It then explores the thesis that art and philosophy carry the risk of estranging us from the world at the same time that they hold out the promise of helping us reengage more adroitly with it. It is perhaps this ambiguity that makes us suspicious of thinkers and artists, for they unsettle our certainties as well as show us new ways of understanding our existence. The author describes the life and work of a Kuranko storyteller, in an attempt to bring into sharper relief the struggle that lies at the heart of all imaginative activity, both intellectual and artistic, to strike and sustain a balance between distancing oneself from the world and achieving a more vital involvement with it.
Paul Wake
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719074905
- eISBN:
- 9781781701256
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719074905.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter draws on Genette's narrative theory in order to locate Marlow in the dual position of narrator and character through close readings of ‘Youth’ and Heart of Darkness, investigating the ...
More
This chapter draws on Genette's narrative theory in order to locate Marlow in the dual position of narrator and character through close readings of ‘Youth’ and Heart of Darkness, investigating the idea that Conrad's narratives are structured around the transmission of story, and questioning the possibility of sustaining the distinction between that which is transmitted and the means of transmission. With this established, it reads Marlow's role as a narrator in the oral tradition alongside Benjamin's ‘The Storyteller’ in order to introduce a connection between narrative authority and death. The chapter concludes with a reading of ‘Youth’ in which the narrative frame becomes central to a reading of Marlow's ‘central’ story.Less
This chapter draws on Genette's narrative theory in order to locate Marlow in the dual position of narrator and character through close readings of ‘Youth’ and Heart of Darkness, investigating the idea that Conrad's narratives are structured around the transmission of story, and questioning the possibility of sustaining the distinction between that which is transmitted and the means of transmission. With this established, it reads Marlow's role as a narrator in the oral tradition alongside Benjamin's ‘The Storyteller’ in order to introduce a connection between narrative authority and death. The chapter concludes with a reading of ‘Youth’ in which the narrative frame becomes central to a reading of Marlow's ‘central’ story.
Machiko Ishikawa
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501751943
- eISBN:
- 9781501751967
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501751943.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter discusses Nakagami's representation of old women or oba from Kumano. To articulate the significance of the oba in Nakagami's narratives, it first investigates Nakagami's reading of the ...
More
This chapter discusses Nakagami's representation of old women or oba from Kumano. To articulate the significance of the oba in Nakagami's narratives, it first investigates Nakagami's reading of the work of well-known woman author Enchi Fumiko to provide insights into his view of the tradition of the “old woman” (omina/ōna) as a storyteller of monogatari. Based on this discussion, the chapter examines Nakagami's depiction in Sen'nen no yuraku (1982) of the aged roji woman, Oryū no oba, as a Burakumin omina. Furthermore, it discusses how Nakagami presents Oryū no oba's silenced voice. Oryū no oba has a special status that derives from her role as omina who passes down monogatari to the younger generation in the community. In contrast, the chapter considers Yuki and Moyo, two aged outcaste women who feature in the Akiyuki trilogy, as oba who can never assume the voice of community storyteller. Thus, this chapter investigates how Nakagami depicts the (im)possibility of these sexed women's voices speaking to or being heard by the community while also demonstrating how the writer presents an alternative representation of their voiceless voices.Less
This chapter discusses Nakagami's representation of old women or oba from Kumano. To articulate the significance of the oba in Nakagami's narratives, it first investigates Nakagami's reading of the work of well-known woman author Enchi Fumiko to provide insights into his view of the tradition of the “old woman” (omina/ōna) as a storyteller of monogatari. Based on this discussion, the chapter examines Nakagami's depiction in Sen'nen no yuraku (1982) of the aged roji woman, Oryū no oba, as a Burakumin omina. Furthermore, it discusses how Nakagami presents Oryū no oba's silenced voice. Oryū no oba has a special status that derives from her role as omina who passes down monogatari to the younger generation in the community. In contrast, the chapter considers Yuki and Moyo, two aged outcaste women who feature in the Akiyuki trilogy, as oba who can never assume the voice of community storyteller. Thus, this chapter investigates how Nakagami depicts the (im)possibility of these sexed women's voices speaking to or being heard by the community while also demonstrating how the writer presents an alternative representation of their voiceless voices.
Thomas Jackson Rice
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813032191
- eISBN:
- 9780813038810
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813032191.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter discusses the impact of the emergent forces in contemporary popular culture that have a direct influence on Joyce' conception of artistic creativity and explorations of the possibilities ...
More
This chapter discusses the impact of the emergent forces in contemporary popular culture that have a direct influence on Joyce' conception of artistic creativity and explorations of the possibilities of fiction especially in his last two books Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. The introduction of new communication means particularly the introduction of phonograph that may have influenced and impacted on the writings of Joyce. In this chapter, Joyce' response to the technology of sound is examined wherein he found a realization and awareness of the beauty that had vanished in the silent reading of the printed text; rather than disappearing, the voice of the storyteller becomes the “talking machine” of the new modernist novel.Less
This chapter discusses the impact of the emergent forces in contemporary popular culture that have a direct influence on Joyce' conception of artistic creativity and explorations of the possibilities of fiction especially in his last two books Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. The introduction of new communication means particularly the introduction of phonograph that may have influenced and impacted on the writings of Joyce. In this chapter, Joyce' response to the technology of sound is examined wherein he found a realization and awareness of the beauty that had vanished in the silent reading of the printed text; rather than disappearing, the voice of the storyteller becomes the “talking machine” of the new modernist novel.
Raymond Fox
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190616144
- eISBN:
- 9780197559680
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190616144.003.0017
- Subject:
- Education, Adult Education and Continuous Learning
Stories are the inspired fields of our brains. Elie Wiesel once commented, ‘‘God made man because He loves stories.’’ The outstanding virtue of stories is ...
More
Stories are the inspired fields of our brains. Elie Wiesel once commented, ‘‘God made man because He loves stories.’’ The outstanding virtue of stories is that they are archetypical in nature and inspire, when shared, a relational partnership in teaching and in learning. Relish the story! Humans have been referred to as storytelling machines. Why? Because of our profound hunger for narrative. It is instinctive. And because, even when delivered in plain language, stories are crammed full of undercurrents and subtle nuances. Our lives are filled and revealed in stories. Their allure resides in their transcendent quality—transcending person, place, culture, ideologies, and academic disciplines. Although cousins of case studies, critical incidents, and role playing, stories are a fresh and unique breed. They draw us out, lead us beyond ourselves and our immediate situation in special ways. Stories rise above a totally logical and straightforward approach to learning and shuttle back and forth between facts and feelings. They echo Schon’s (1983) assertion that stories trigger reflection in a context that presents material differently. We think in terms of stories. New events and experiences are cast in stories that are linked to previously understood stories and experiences. Knowing them, finding them, reflecting on and reconsidering them—massaging them, as it were—help students to understand and operate in the world of professional practice. Students easily apprehend their meaning and adapt them to their own purposes, eventually capturing or inventing their own. Our ability to tell stories in novel ways is a hallmark of wisdom, maturity, and careful judgment. Stories from our own practice, from students, even from folklore, movies, and mythology can be usefully employed to build motivation in learning environments. Verisimilitude is the stuff of stories. They cannot be reduced to facts. Stories tell so much more. Words turn into pictures, providing a kaleidoscope of human nature—the ordinary and the extraordinary—about fallibility, about changing the human condition. Stories are a triumph of ordinary and extraordinary humanity and fallibility. What is a story? Bruner (1996) deems a story as a mode of thinking, a means of organizing experience and knowledge.
Less
Stories are the inspired fields of our brains. Elie Wiesel once commented, ‘‘God made man because He loves stories.’’ The outstanding virtue of stories is that they are archetypical in nature and inspire, when shared, a relational partnership in teaching and in learning. Relish the story! Humans have been referred to as storytelling machines. Why? Because of our profound hunger for narrative. It is instinctive. And because, even when delivered in plain language, stories are crammed full of undercurrents and subtle nuances. Our lives are filled and revealed in stories. Their allure resides in their transcendent quality—transcending person, place, culture, ideologies, and academic disciplines. Although cousins of case studies, critical incidents, and role playing, stories are a fresh and unique breed. They draw us out, lead us beyond ourselves and our immediate situation in special ways. Stories rise above a totally logical and straightforward approach to learning and shuttle back and forth between facts and feelings. They echo Schon’s (1983) assertion that stories trigger reflection in a context that presents material differently. We think in terms of stories. New events and experiences are cast in stories that are linked to previously understood stories and experiences. Knowing them, finding them, reflecting on and reconsidering them—massaging them, as it were—help students to understand and operate in the world of professional practice. Students easily apprehend their meaning and adapt them to their own purposes, eventually capturing or inventing their own. Our ability to tell stories in novel ways is a hallmark of wisdom, maturity, and careful judgment. Stories from our own practice, from students, even from folklore, movies, and mythology can be usefully employed to build motivation in learning environments. Verisimilitude is the stuff of stories. They cannot be reduced to facts. Stories tell so much more. Words turn into pictures, providing a kaleidoscope of human nature—the ordinary and the extraordinary—about fallibility, about changing the human condition. Stories are a triumph of ordinary and extraordinary humanity and fallibility. What is a story? Bruner (1996) deems a story as a mode of thinking, a means of organizing experience and knowledge.
Arne De Boever
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748634620
- eISBN:
- 9780748652440
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748634620.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter explores the relation between violence and justice in Giorgio Agamben's work. It investigates the essential role that Walter Benjamin's classic essay ‘Critique of Violence’ plays for ...
More
This chapter explores the relation between violence and justice in Giorgio Agamben's work. It investigates the essential role that Walter Benjamin's classic essay ‘Critique of Violence’ plays for Agamben. This essay is a foundational text for Agamben's study of sovereign power. It shows links between Benjamin's obscure notion of ‘divine violence’ and his essay on ‘The Storyteller’. Carl Schmitt's sovereignty confirms the dialectic between violence and the law; Benjamin's divine violence breaks with it. Agamben's reading of Oedipus and the Sphinx turns into an implicit critique of Benjamin when he develops his preference of the enigmatic Sphinx over and against the transparency that Oedipus brings into a reflection on the story. The distinction between the violent political strike and the nonviolent proletarian strike makes perfect sense in the context of Agamben's reading of the Benjamin-Schmitt debate.Less
This chapter explores the relation between violence and justice in Giorgio Agamben's work. It investigates the essential role that Walter Benjamin's classic essay ‘Critique of Violence’ plays for Agamben. This essay is a foundational text for Agamben's study of sovereign power. It shows links between Benjamin's obscure notion of ‘divine violence’ and his essay on ‘The Storyteller’. Carl Schmitt's sovereignty confirms the dialectic between violence and the law; Benjamin's divine violence breaks with it. Agamben's reading of Oedipus and the Sphinx turns into an implicit critique of Benjamin when he develops his preference of the enigmatic Sphinx over and against the transparency that Oedipus brings into a reflection on the story. The distinction between the violent political strike and the nonviolent proletarian strike makes perfect sense in the context of Agamben's reading of the Benjamin-Schmitt debate.
Heron Nicholas
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748634620
- eISBN:
- 9780748652440
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748634620.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter reconstructs the series of references, left largely unexamined by Giorgio Agamben himself, that gather around the central notion of ‘the idea of prose’. It reviews the origin of this ...
More
This chapter reconstructs the series of references, left largely unexamined by Giorgio Agamben himself, that gather around the central notion of ‘the idea of prose’. It reviews the origin of this movement in three major texts of Walter Benjamin: ‘The concept of criticism in German Romanticism’, ‘The Storyteller’, and the preparatory notes to his final text ‘On the Concept of History’. According to Benjamin, the basic epistemological presuppositions of the early Romantic concept of criticism are entirely concentrated in the concept of reflection. ‘The idea of poetry is prose’: this formula, according to Benjamin, is the ‘final determination’ of the early Romantic idea of art. The idea of poetry as that of prose must be confronted — according to that salient expression which, more than two decades later, suffuses Benjamin's very last fragments — with the idea of prose, understood, precisely, as that of poetry.Less
This chapter reconstructs the series of references, left largely unexamined by Giorgio Agamben himself, that gather around the central notion of ‘the idea of prose’. It reviews the origin of this movement in three major texts of Walter Benjamin: ‘The concept of criticism in German Romanticism’, ‘The Storyteller’, and the preparatory notes to his final text ‘On the Concept of History’. According to Benjamin, the basic epistemological presuppositions of the early Romantic concept of criticism are entirely concentrated in the concept of reflection. ‘The idea of poetry is prose’: this formula, according to Benjamin, is the ‘final determination’ of the early Romantic idea of art. The idea of poetry as that of prose must be confronted — according to that salient expression which, more than two decades later, suffuses Benjamin's very last fragments — with the idea of prose, understood, precisely, as that of poetry.
Kevin D. Cordi
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781496821249
- eISBN:
- 9781496821294
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496821249.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
In this chapter, Cordi illustrates what it means to be a storytelling teacher. He then explains his role in researching his work as a storyteller performer and teacher. He talks about the limitations ...
More
In this chapter, Cordi illustrates what it means to be a storytelling teacher. He then explains his role in researching his work as a storyteller performer and teacher. He talks about the limitations of the study.Less
In this chapter, Cordi illustrates what it means to be a storytelling teacher. He then explains his role in researching his work as a storyteller performer and teacher. He talks about the limitations of the study.
Kevin D. Cordi
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781496821249
- eISBN:
- 9781496821294
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496821249.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
Cordi shares how he resisted changing his definition of storytelling. He outlines what it traditionally means to be a professional storyteller and how he discovered what he knows. He then shows how ...
More
Cordi shares how he resisted changing his definition of storytelling. He outlines what it traditionally means to be a professional storyteller and how he discovered what he knows. He then shows how he used storytelling as a high school educator and how he was able to listen to his students more when he stopped to listen. He shows how student stories are the curriculum he works to follow. Subsequently, forming a storytelling club at his schools.Less
Cordi shares how he resisted changing his definition of storytelling. He outlines what it traditionally means to be a professional storyteller and how he discovered what he knows. He then shows how he used storytelling as a high school educator and how he was able to listen to his students more when he stopped to listen. He shows how student stories are the curriculum he works to follow. Subsequently, forming a storytelling club at his schools.
Edward William Lane and Jason Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789774165603
- eISBN:
- 9781617975516
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774165603.003.0021
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This and the following two chapters look at the reciters and storytellers who would frequent the coffeehouses of Cairo and other towns in the evenings, particularly during religious festivals. This ...
More
This and the following two chapters look at the reciters and storytellers who would frequent the coffeehouses of Cairo and other towns in the evenings, particularly during religious festivals. This chapter focuses on the poets (“shoara”) who would recite, by memory, tales of the adventures of Aboo Zeyd, a story based on events that supposedly took place in middle of third century AH, but were composed later. These tales are said to be informative on the subject Bedouin customs and traditions. The recitations were half prose and half poetry, with some music. The poet would play a few notes on a viol after every verse, and was sometimes accompanied by another instrument. This chapter includes a summary of a volume of the story, plus a translation of some of the poetry and musical notation.Less
This and the following two chapters look at the reciters and storytellers who would frequent the coffeehouses of Cairo and other towns in the evenings, particularly during religious festivals. This chapter focuses on the poets (“shoara”) who would recite, by memory, tales of the adventures of Aboo Zeyd, a story based on events that supposedly took place in middle of third century AH, but were composed later. These tales are said to be informative on the subject Bedouin customs and traditions. The recitations were half prose and half poetry, with some music. The poet would play a few notes on a viol after every verse, and was sometimes accompanied by another instrument. This chapter includes a summary of a volume of the story, plus a translation of some of the poetry and musical notation.
Edward William Lane and Jason Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789774165603
- eISBN:
- 9781617975516
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774165603.003.0022
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
The second type of reciters, along with poets described in previous chapter, are storytellers (“mohadditeen,”) of which there were around thirty in Cairo. They also did public performances, but their ...
More
The second type of reciters, along with poets described in previous chapter, are storytellers (“mohadditeen,”) of which there were around thirty in Cairo. They also did public performances, but their narration was of a work called “The Life of Ez-Zahir,” based on the history of the Sultan Baybars, who reigned in the second half of the seventh century AH. Printed copies of this tale existed in several volumes, written around one hundred years previously in Egyptian colloquial Arabic, but the original author was unknown. This chapter includes a translation of an extract from the second volume, but stresses that the entertainment in large part derived from the improvisation and wit of the storyteller.Less
The second type of reciters, along with poets described in previous chapter, are storytellers (“mohadditeen,”) of which there were around thirty in Cairo. They also did public performances, but their narration was of a work called “The Life of Ez-Zahir,” based on the history of the Sultan Baybars, who reigned in the second half of the seventh century AH. Printed copies of this tale existed in several volumes, written around one hundred years previously in Egyptian colloquial Arabic, but the original author was unknown. This chapter includes a translation of an extract from the second volume, but stresses that the entertainment in large part derived from the improvisation and wit of the storyteller.
