Storytelling

The Nature of Storytelling

The essence of storytelling is its tangibility: The storyteller seeks to convey an experience (something that actually happened, might have happened or might yet happen) in such a way that it seems real. It might be a story remembered—and perhaps embroidered—from life; it might be a conscious fiction made up about ourselves or others; it might even go beyond what is humanly possible into the realms of folklore, fairytale and fantasy. But in whichever of these spheres a story has its centre of gravity, something has to happen, and it has to happen to somebody (human or otherwise).

Stories necessarily involve particular events happening to particular characters. They sit within a presentational form of knowing that exemplifies experience and offers it to the listener or viewer for exploration. Narratives that veer towards generalities, explanations and abstractions or which insist on conveying their moral or meaning have abandoned storytelling in favour of propositional knowing and advocacy. Thus, the teller of a traditional tale is more likely to begin by saying, ‘Once upon a time there was a king and a queen’ rather than ‘On the whole, there was royalty’.

In literate societies, the power of the spoken word has largely been displaced by the written word. Walter J. Ong, in his classic study of the development of language and literacy, explains the psychodynamics of the spoken word for preliterate ancestors. In oral cultures, he says, words are considered to have power; all sound is dynamic, especially oral utterance which comes from inside living beings. In a wonderful example, he points out that while a hunter can experience the presence of even a dead buffalo through all his other senses, if he hears one, then it's alive, and something is definitely going on!

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