This interdisciplinary volume centers on the interrelations of storytelling and various manifestations of cultural identity, from written to oral and from autobiographical to regional and national. Indigenous storytelling, as well as storytelling for and by children and the elderly, are the main focus of these essays. Together, these fifteen texts make a significant contribution toward a deeper understanding of various aspects of textual and oral narrative: they broaden the lines of inquiry into multidisciplinary and multicultural interests, particularly those centering on the construction, expression, and contextualization of various types of identity; and they illustrate the deployment of storytelling not only as testimony, contestation, and subversion - but also as peacebuilding. Many countries, languages and cultures are herein represented - from the United States and Canada to Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia, from English to Japanese to Greek to Italian to the languages of indigenous peoples of Latin America and the Philippines.

This anthology focuses on people that share cultural ideals through traditional folktales.The selected readings emphasize the idea that the practice of face-to-face oral narrative strengthens cultural beliefs, attitudes, and values.

Thanks to ever-greater digital connectivity, interest in oral traditions has grown beyond that of researcher and research subject to include a widening pool of global users. When new publics consume, manipulate and connect with field recordings and digital cultural archives, their involvement raises important practical and ethical questions. This volume explores the political repercussions of studying marginalised languages; the role of online tools in ensuring responsible access to sensitive cultural materials; and ways of ensuring that when digital documents are created, they are not fossilised as a consequence of being archived. Fieldwork reports by linguists and anthropologists in three continents provide concrete examples of overcoming barriers -- ethical, practical and conceptual -- in digital documentation projects. Oral Literature In The Digital Age is an essential guide and handbook for ethnographers, field linguists, community activists, curators, archivists, librarians, and all who connect with indigenous communities in order to document and preserve oral traditions.

Storytelling: Reflecting on Oral Narratives and Cultures is an anthology that focuses on how people share cultural ideals through traditional folktales. The selected readings emphasize the idea that the practice of face-to-face oral narrative strengthens cultural beliefs, attitudes, and values. While modern society provides a staggering number of opportunities to gather information, face-to-face storytelling still has much to offer. It can convey many levels of meaning not available in databases. It contributes to social cohesion, provides ways of understanding the past, and offers the opportunity for a shared experience with others. In addition, the book opens a window on diversity by incorporating concepts such as cultural identity, individualism and collectivism, stratification, stereotyping, and others. The introduction to Storytelling discusses how stories began, and contrasts oral, literary, and electronic traditions. The twelve chapters in the book address the meaning of culture, the purpose of story, the role of characters, and the relationship between storyteller and audience. The book also covers universal themes in storytelling, themes that transcend both culture and time and strike a chord in everyone. These themes include love, jealousy, conceptions of virtue, youth and innocence, and age and wisdom. Attention is given to the role storytelling plays in illness and health, covered in a chapter on healers such as doctors, priests, and shamans. Some featured stories are ancient, such as the tale of the Golem. Others speak to us with the voices of contemporary societies facing contemporary issues, as seen in "John Outruns the Lord" and an examination of racism. The stories invite the reader to travel the world, sharing in the tales of many countries and civilizations. Storytelling: Reflecting on Oral Narratives and Cultures leads readers to a deeper understanding of the critical role played by the narrative tradition over the course of generations. It brings forth stories from past and present, from near and far to demonstrate their power to teach, heal, unify, and empower.

Winner of the 2003 Trillium Book Award "Stories are wondrous things," award-winning author and scholar Thomas King declares in his 2003 CBC Massey Lectures. "And they are dangerous." Beginning with a traditional Native oral story, King weaves his way through literature and history, religion and politics, popular culture and social protest, gracefully elucidating North America's relationship with its Native peoples. Native culture has deep ties to storytelling, and yet no other North American culture has been the subject of more erroneous stories. The Indian of fact, as King says, bears little resemblance to the literary Indian, the dying Indian, the construct so powerfully and often destructively projected by White North America. With keen perception and wit, King illustrates that stories are the key to, and only hope for, human understanding. He compels us to listen well.

This book presents a selection of fourteen provocative and unique essays bringing together the views of exciting new scholarship on narratives and cultural identity in Latin America. In so doing, it balances theory, methodology, and description. The offerings in this volume deliver a clarion mix of original voices and cutting-edge approaches to the exploration of the topics, which reflect diverse perspectives on Latin American culture and literature. The contributions feature analyses of Latin American oral tradition, cultural identity, memory construction, storytelling, literary truth-claims, myth, autobiography, cultural policy and history, folk art and cinema.

Annotation This text evolved out of a December 1995 conference at the International Research Center for Cultural Studies (IFK) in Vienna, attended by scholars from psychology, psychiatry, philosophy, social sciences, literary theory, classics, communication, and film theory, and exploring the importance of narrative as an expression of our experience, as a form of communication, and as a form for understanding the world and ourselves. Nine scholars from Canada, the US, and Europe contribute 12 essays on the relationship between narrative and human identity, how we construct what we call our lives and create ourselves in the process. Coverage includes theoretical perspectives on the problem of narrative and self construction, specific life stories in their cultural contexts, and empirical and theoretical issues of autobiographical memory and narrative identity. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).