The Boyhood of Raleigh by Sir John Everett Millais, oil on canvas, 1870. The Boyhood of Raleigh is a painting by John Everett Millais, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1871 Sir John Everett Millais 1st Baronet, PRA ( June 8, 1829 &ndash August 13, 1896) was an English painter Year 1870 ( MDCCCLXX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common
A seafarer tells the young Sir Walter Raleigh and his brother the story of what happened out at sea

Storytelling is the ancient art of conveying events in words, images, and sounds often by improvisation or embellishment. A word is a unit of Language that carries meaning and consists of one or more Morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together and has a Phonetic An image (from Latin imago) or picture is an artifact usually two-dimensional that has a similar appearance to some subject &mdashusually Sound' is Vibration transmitted through a Solid, Liquid, or Gas; particularly sound means those vibrations composed of Frequencies Improvisation (also called extemporization) is the practice of acting singing talking and reacting of making and creating in the moment and in response to the stimulus of Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture and in every land as a means of entertainment, education, preservation of culture and in order to instill moral values. A narrative or story is a construct created in a suitable format (written spoken poetry prose images song Theater, or Dance) that describes a sequence of See also Entertainment (disambiguation and The Entertainer (disambiguation Entertainment is an activity designed to give people Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event Crucial elements of stories and storytelling include plot and characters, as well as the narrative point of view. Stories are frequently used to teach, explain, and/or entertain. Less frequently, but occasionally with major consequences, they have been used to mislead. There can be much truth in a story of fiction, and much falsehood in a story that uses facts.

Storytelling has existed as long as humanity has had language. A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them It's the world of myth, of history, of the imagination. See also Mythology Myth is derived from the Greek word μύθος mythos, which simply means 'story' Imagination is the ability to form Mental images/sounds/feelings or the ability to Spontaneously Generate images/sounds/feelings within one's own Mind . . it explains life. Every culture has its stories and legends, just as every culture has its storytellers and often revered figures with the magic of the tale in their voices and minds. A legend ( Latin, legenda, "things to be read" is a Narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to

The evolution of technology has changed the tools available to storytellers. The earliest forms of storytelling are thought to have been primarily oral combined with gestures and expressions. Rudimentary drawings scratched onto the walls of caves may also be forms of early storytelling. Rock art is a term in Archaeology for any man-made markings made on natural stone Ephemeral media such as sand, leaves, and the carved trunks of living trees have also been used to record stories in pictures or with writing. With the advent of writing, the use of actual digit symbols to represent language, and the use of stable, portable media stories were recorded, transcribed and shared over wide regions of the world. Stories have been carved, scratched, painted, printed, or inked onto wood or bamboo, ivory and other bones, pottery, clay tablets, stone, palm-leaf books, skins (parchment), bark cloth, paper, silk, canvas and other textiles, recorded on film and stored electronically in digital form. Paper is thin material mainly used for writing upon printing upon or packaging Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty plain-woven fabric used for making Sails Tents Marquees Backpacks and other functions Complex forms of tattooing may also represent stories, with information about genealogy, affiliation and social status.

Traditionally, oral stories were passed from generation to generation, and survived solely by memory. With written media, this has become less important. Conversely, in modern times, the vast entertainment industry is built upon a foundation of sophisticated multimedia storytelling.

Oral traditions

People in all times and places have told stories. In the oral tradition, storytelling includes the teller and the audience. The storyteller creates the experience, while the audience perceives the message and creates personal mental images from the words heard and the gestures seen. In this experience, the audience becomes co-creator of the art. Storytellers sometimes dialogue with their audience, adjusting their words to respond to the listeners and to the moment.

Oral storytelling is an improvisational art form, one that is sometimes compared to music. Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. Generally, a storyteller does not memorize a set text, but learns a series of script-like incidents that form a satisfying narrative arc (a plot) with a distinct beginning, middle and end. The teller visualizes the characters and settings, and then improvises the actual wording. Thus no two tellings of an oral story are exactly alike.

Albert Bates Lord examined oral narratives from field transcripts of Yugoslav oral bards collected by Milman Parry in the 1930s, and the texts of epics such as The Odyssey and Beowulf. Albert Bates Lord (1912-1991 was a Professor of Slavic and Comparative Literature at Harvard University who after the untimely death of Milman Parry, carried on The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression. The Odyssey ( Greek: Ὀδύσσεια or Odússeia) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. Beowulf is an Old English Heroic epic poem of anonymous authorship dating as recorded in the Nowell Codex manuscript from between ^[1] Lord found that a surprisingly large part of the stories consisted of text improvised during the telling process. The words seemingly came from a mental storehouse of phrases and narrative devices accumulated over a lifetime.

Lord identified two types of story vocabulary. The first he called 'formulas': "rosy-fingered dawn," "the wine-dark sea," certain set phrases had long been known of in Homer and other oral epics. A set phrase is an expression (ie term or Phrase) whose parts are fixed (see examples below Homer ( Ancient Greek:, Homēros) is a legendary ancient Greek epic Poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the But no one realized before Lord how common these formulas were. He discovered that across many story traditions that fully 90% of an oral epic is assembled from lines repeated verbatim or with one-for-one word substitutions. Oral stories are built out of phrases stockpiled from a lifetime of hearing and telling stories. The other type of story vocabulary is theme. A theme is a set sequence of story actions that structure the tale. Just as the teller of tales proceeds line-by-line using formulas, so he proceeds event-to-event using themes. One almost universal theme is repetition, as evidenced in Western folklore with the 'rule of three': three brothers set out, three attempts are made, three riddles are asked. A theme can be as simple as a specific set sequence describing the arming of a hero, starting with shirt and trousers and ending with headdress and weapons. A hero (from Greek grc ἥρως hērōs) in Greek mythology and Folklore, was originally a Demigod, the offspring of a mortal and A theme can be large enough to be a plot component. For example: a hero proposes a journey to a dangerous place / he disguises himself / his disguise fools everybody / except for a common person of little account (a crone, a tavern maid or a woodcutter) / who immediately recognizes him / the commoner becomes the hero's ally, showing unexpected resources of skill or initiative. A theme does not belong to a specific story, but may be found with minor variation in many different stories. Themes may be no more than handy prefabricated parts for constructing a tale. Or they may represent universal truths - ritual-based, religious truths as James Frazer saw in The Golden Bough, or archetypal, psychological truths as Joseph Campbell describes in The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Joseph John Campbell ( March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American Mythology Professor, Writer

The intrinsic nature of stories was described by Reynolds Price, when he wrote:

"A need to tell and hear stories is essential to the species Homo sapiens--second in necessity apparently after nourishment and before love and shelter. Reynolds Price (born February 1, 1933, as Edward Reynolds Price) is an American novelist poet dramatist essayist and James B Millions survive without love or home, almost none in silence; the opposite of silence leads quickly to narrative, and the sound of story is the dominant sound of our lives, from the small accounts of our day's events to the vast incommunicable constructs of psychopaths. "^[2]

There are many kinds of stories, such as fables, parables, myths, legends. A fable is a succinct story in prose or verse that features Animals Plants inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are A parable is a brief succinct story in Prose or verse, that illustrates a Moral or Religious lesson The word mythology (from the Greek grc μυθολογία mythología, meaning "a story-telling a legendary lore" A legend ( Latin, legenda, "things to be read" is a Narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to Stories are of many moods, such as humorous, inspirational, didactic or educative, frightening, tragic, romantic.

Folklorists sometimes divide oral tales into two main groups: "Märchen" and "Sagen". These are German terms for which there are no exact English equivalents; the first one is both singular and plural. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States (1) "Märchen," loosely translated as "fairy tale(s)" (though fairies are rare in them) take place in a kind of separate "once-upon-a-time" world of nowhere-in-particular. They are clearly not intended to be understood as true. The stories are full of clearly defined incidents, and peopled by rather flat characters with little or no interior life. When the supernatural occurs, it is presented matter-of-factly, without surprise. Indeed, there is very little affect, generally; bloodcurdling events may take place, but with little call for emotional response from the listener. (2) "Sagen," best translated as "legends," are supposed to have actually happened, very often at a particular time and place, and they draw much of their power from this fact. When the supernatural intrudes (as it often does), it does so in an emotionally fraught manner. Ghost and lover's leap stories belong in this category, as do many UFO-stories, and stories of supernatural beings and events.

Stories of wise men are well known, such as Solomon and Nasreddin. King Solomon ( Ge'ez: ስለሞን Arabic: ar سليمان, Sulayman, all from the Triliteral root S-L-M, "peace" Nasreddin ( Turkish "Nasreddin Hoca", Persian ملا نصرالدین, Arabic: جحا transl

Modern actors, singers, rappers and comedians can at times be storytellers. An actor, actress, player or thespian (see terminology) is a person who Acts in a Dramatic production and who works Rapping (also known as emceeing, MCing, spitting, or just rhyming) is the Rhythmic spoken delivery of Rhymes wordplay and A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience primarily by making them laugh There is also a distinct kind of contemporary performer called "storyteller" who combines elements of these more mainstream professions together with several others, to create performances that are neither modern nor archaic. These performers may use traditional, original, or historical materials.

Organizational consultants and managers have also discovered the power of storytelling in organizations. A good story of organizational transformation in one organization might motivate similar organizations to change as well; also, the informal stories people tell to each other about organizational norms, policies and change initiatives permeate organizational culture and reflect the meaning people give to organizational interventions.

Storytelling as art form

Though nearly all humans tell stories, many individuals have brought this skill to the level of art. Storytelling Festivals feature the work of these individuals. A storytelling festival is often an annual event that features local regional and/or nationally known oral storytellers Elements of the storytelling art form include visualization (the seeing of images in the mind's eye), and vocal and bodily gestures. A gesture is a form of Non-verbal communication made with a part of the body used instead of or in combination with verbal communication. In many ways, the art of storytelling draws upon other art forms such as acting, oral interpretation, and performance studies. Acting is the work of an Actor or Actress, which is a person in Theatre, Television, Film, or any other Storytelling Oral Interpretation is a dramatic art also commonly called "interpretive reading" and "dramatic reading" though these terms are more conservative and restrictive Performance studies has been growing as an academic specialty since the 1970s

In the 1970s, a so called "Renaissance" of storytelling began in the U. S. and resulted in many performers becoming professional storytellers. Another result was the creation of the National Association for the Perpetuation and Preservation of Storytelling (NAPPS), now the National Storytelling Network. This professional organization helped to organize resources for tellers and festival planners. As of 2007, there are dozens of storytelling festivals and hundreds of professional storytellers around the world, and an international celebration of the art on World storytelling day. World Storytelling Day is a global celebration of the art of oral Storytelling.

Engagement

Robert Begiebing et al (2004) summarize personal and professional experiences making successful modern films, novels, biographies, articles, museum displays, and poems. ^[3] Even in these forms, storytellers try to create a sense of engagement or dialog with the audience. A dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog) is a reciprocal Conversation between two or more entities. As a professor of English, Begiebing hypothesizes that the effective writer provides just enough clues to get the reader's imagination, intellect, and emotional responses involved in figuring out what is going on in the story. The meaning of the word professor ( Latin: professor, person who professes to be an expert in some art or science teacher of highest rank) varies A hypothesis (from Greek) consists either of a suggested explanation for a phenomenon (an event that is observable or of a reasoned proposal suggesting a possible The stories that last through the ages "leave plenty up to the reader. "

Use of perspectives

History museum expert Barbara Franco describes how good storytelling techniques can improve a museum exhibit. She illustrates the point when she says "good labels raise questions and get people thinking. " The voice telling the story makes a great difference. First-person encourages the reader, audience, or visitor to the museum to listen and relate to a person, the speaker, not just to the recitation of facts.

An example of a first-person story is The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby is a Novel by the American author F Scott Fitzgerald. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24 1896 – December 21 1940 was an American writer of Novels and Short stories, whose works are evocative of the There is also a "third person" perspective in which the main character is seen from the outside and the inside at the same time, heightening the reader's involvement in the story.

Mixes of viewpoints and voices assist in telling extremely complex stories. Franco says it this way: "Audience research has shown that visitors are more willing to deal with difficult topics in exhibitions if they are given multiple viewpoints and are able to hear different sides. "

"Addressing the unfamiliar is one way to foster critical engagement," says Joshua Brown, filmmaker and historian. ^[4] A good storyteller gives the listener or reader a sense of making order out of chaos. Chaos (derived from the Ancient Greek, Chaos) typically refers to Unpredictability, and is the antithesis of Cosmos. So the good storyteller must give the reader a good dose of feeling the chaos, and there has to follow enough order made out of the chaos to give the reader the satisfaction of a good story.

Non-linearity

However, the stories that appeal to generation after generation are the stories that are never resolvable - just as life is never resolvable; the complexity of life remains. Life is non-linear, says filmmaker David Grubin. If life were linear, we would always live in the present moment, but we don't. At any moment, we live in the past, partly in the present, and much in the future. Life is non-linear. And the best films convey that non-linearity of life in flashbacks and premonitions. In history film television and other media a flashback (also called analepsis) is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current Grubin tells his own experience of trying to capture on film what it was like to be Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud (ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt born Sigismund Shlomo Freud (May 6 1856 &ndash September 23 1939 was an Austrian Psychiatrist who founded And Grubin's solution was to tell the childhood of Freud toward the end of the film when Freud is rehashing for himself the difficulties he had in creating psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is a body of ideas developed by Austrian physician Sigmund Freud and his followers which is devoted to the study of human psychological functioning and behavior And in that moment of complexity in his life, Freud reflects on the similar difficulties he had in his childhood in getting people to accept him.

In Grubin's estimation, Kurosawa similarly looked for non-linear storytelling techniques when he approached the problem of telling in Rashomon the very complex story of conflicting interests. is a 1950 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa, working in close collaboration with Cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa. Four different people are involved in a murder. They have different self-interests, and they have different stories of what happened. It is all one film, but it is four different stories with similar people and similar props in each of the four stories. Kurosawa does not give a clue to what really happened - as opposed to the four conflicting stories. The non-linearity of the storytelling adds to the popular appeal of this film.

Questioning the author's authority

Kurt Vonnegut, in the guise of his narrator Philboyd Studge (who is modelled closely on Vonnegut's own life, and whose name comes from a short story by the master storyteller Saki) went even so far as to argue not only against linearity, but to call for the abolition of traditional plot characteristics altogether. Kurt Vonnegut Jr (November 11 1922 – April 11 2007 (ˈvɒnəgət was a prolific and genre-bending American Novelist known for works blending Satire, Black A narrator (or the extremely rarely used female equivalent narratress) is within any story (literary work movie play verbal account etc The short story is a literary genre of Fictional Prose Narrative that tends to be more concise and to the point than longer works of fiction such Hector Hugh Munro ( December 18, 1870 – November 14, 1916) better known by the Pen name Saki, was a British In his novel Breakfast of Champions he opts instead for a kaleidoscopic view on the past, present, and future of the novel's characters as well as on his thoughts on writing the novel itself. Breakfast of Champions or Goodbye Blue Monday is a 1973 novel by the American author Kurt Vonnegut. A kaleidoscope is a tube of Mirrors containing loose colored Beads Pebbles or other small colored objects He claims to do so in order to be more true to life:

"I resolved to shun storytelling. I would write about life. Every person would be exactly as important as any other. All facts would also be given equal weightiness. Let others bring order to chaos. I would bring chaos to order, instead, which I think I have done. If all writers would do that, then perhaps citizens not in the literary trades will understand that there is no order in the world around us, that we must adapt ourselves to the requirements of chaos instead. "

In Vonnegut's novel, this particular form of narration (or lack thereof) serves to create empathy on the readers' side with the narrator's and his main protagonist's experience of an existential crisis. Existential crisis, derived from Existentialism, is the psychologic panic and discomfort experienced when a human confronts questions of existence

Emancipation of the story

In oral tradition, where stories were passed on by being told and re-told again and again, the material of any given story during this process naturally underwent several changes and adaptations. When and where oral tradition was pushed back in favour of print media, the literary idea of the author as originator of a story's authoritative version changed people's perception of stories themselves. Oral tradition, oral culture and oral lore is a way for a society to transmit history, literature, law and other Knowledges Printing is a process for reproducing text and image typically with ink on Paper using a printing press Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter An idea is a form (such as a Thought) formed by Consciousness (including Mind) through the Process of ideation. An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created In Politics, authority ( Latin Auctoritas, used in Roman law as opposed to Potestas and Imperium In Psychology and the Cognitive sciences perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory Information. In the following centuries, stories tended to be seen as the work of individuals rather than a collective. Only recently, when a significant number of influential authors began questioning their own role, the value of stories as such - independent of authorship - was again recognized. Literary critics such as Roland Barthes even proclaimed the Death of the Author. Roland Barthes ( November 12, 1915 &ndash March 25, 1980) (ʀɔlɑ̃ baʀt was a French Literary critic, literary " Death of the Author " (1967 is an essay by the French literary critic Roland Barthes that was first published in the American journal Aspen. The growing tradition of fanfiction may be seen in this manner. Fan fiction (alternately referred to as fanfiction, fanfic, FF or fic) is a broadly defined term for Fiction about characters or settings

See also

• Dramatic structure
• Djemaa el Fna a market place in Marrakesh famous for its storytellers, now classified masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity because of this. Dramatic structure refers to the arrangement of the constituent parts of a play or Screenplay. Djemaa el Fna ( Arabic: جامع الفناء jâmiʻ al-fanâʼ) is a square and Market place in Marrakesh 's Medina quarter A marketplace is the space actual or metaphorical in which a Market operates Marrakesh or Marrakech ( Amazigh: Murakush, Arabic مراكش Murrakush) known as the "Red City" The Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity is a list maintained by UNESCO with pieces of Intangible culture considered relevant by that
• Antenarrative
• Fable
• Fairy tale
• Folklore
• Maggid
• Narrative
• Oral history
• Organization story
• Organizational storytelling
• Scheherazade
• Solo Show
• Storyboard
• Storytelling game
• Storytelling festival
• Story arc
• Sjuzhet
• Seanachai
• Shuochang
• World storytelling day

References

Further reading

• Beyer, Jürgen, 'Prolegomena to a history of story-telling around the Baltic Sea, c. 1550-1800', Electronic Journal of Folklore, vol. Butterworth-Heinemann was a UK -based international Publishing company specialized in professional information and learning materials for higher education and professional 4 (1997), 43-60
• Bruner, Jerome S. Actual Minds, Possible Worlds. Jerome Seymour Bruner (born 1 October, 1915) is an American Psychologist who has contributed to Cognitive psychology and Cognitive Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Harvard University Press ( HUP) is a Publishing house, a division of Harvard University, that is highly respected in Academic publishing. 1986. ISBN 0674003659
• Bruner, Jerome S. Making Stories: Law, Literature, Life. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Farrar Straus and Giroux is an American book Publishing company founded in 1946 by Roger W 2002. ISBN 0374200246
• Gargiulo, Terrence L. Stories at Work: Using Stories to Improve Communication and Build Relationships. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers. Greenwood Publishing Group (GPG located in Westport Connecticut is a leading educational publisher ( Middle school through University level and is part 2006. ISBN 0275987310
• Gargiulo, Terrence L. The Strategic Use of Stories in Organizational Communication and Learning. Armonk: M. E. Sharpe. 2005. ISBN 0765614138
• Leitch, Thomas M. What Stories Are: Narrative Theory and Interpretation. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. The Penn State University Press, also called Penn State Press was established in 1956 and is a non-profit Publisher of scholarly books and journals 1986. ISBN 0271004312
• McKee, Robert. Robert McKee, born 1941 is a Creative writing instructor who is widely known for his popular "Story Seminar" which he developed when he was a professor at the Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting. New York: ReganBooks. ReganBooks was a controversial American bestselling Imprint or division of HarperCollins book publishing house (parent company is News Corp) 1997. ISBN 0060391685
• Mitchoff, Kate Houston. "Ignite the story within: a librarian makes a case for using storytelling to increase literacy". School Library Journal. School Library Journal is a monthly publication with articles and reviews for school and public Librarians who work with young people New York: R.R. Bowker Xerox. RR Bowker LLC provides information support for the Publishing industry in the United States Xerox Corporation ( (name ˈziːrɒks is a global document management company which manufactures and sells a range of color and black-and-white printers, multifunction 1961. ISSN 0362-8930 OCLC 99656380 (REPRINT: 2005, February. ERIC Document EJ710440. The Education Resources Information Center ( ERIC) sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES of the U )
• Randall, W. "Restorying a Life: Adult Education and Transformative Learning. " In Aging and Biography: Explorations in Adult Development. Edited by James E. Birren et al. , pp. 224-247. New York: Springer Publishing, 1996. ISBN 0826189806
• Reis, Pamela Tamarkin. "Genesis as Rashomon: The creation as told by God and man. " Bible Review 17 (3). Bible Review is a publication that sought to connect the academic study of the Bible to a broad general audience Washington, D. C. : Biblical Archaeology Society. The Biblical Archaeology Society is a non-denominational organization that supports and promotes Biblical archaeology. 2001. ISSN 8755-6316
• Shedlock, Marie L. The Art of the Story-teller. D. Appleton & Company, New York, 1917. D Appleton & Company was an American company founded by Daniel Appleton ( Dec 10, 1785 - Mar 27, 1849) who opened a ISBN 1406815225
• Wiessner, C. A. Stories of Change: Narrative in Emancipatory Adult Education. Thesis Ed. D. dissertation, Teachers College, Columbia University. Columbia University is a private University in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. 2001. OCLC 80185345

External links

• Society for Storytelling
• The Canadian Museum of Civilization - Storrytelling: The Art of Knowledge
• Professional Storyteller Social Network
• What is storytelling?
• Persausion Through Storytelling
• How storytelling will save the world
• Dianne de Las Casas' Story Collection
• Storytelling Resources for Storytellers
• The story that we tell ourselves
• The Ultimate Storytelling Guide