World Storytelling Day (March 20)
The art of oral storytelling.
We imagine ourselves, we create ourselves, we touch ourselves into being with words, words that are important to us.
Gerald Vizenor
* Scott C. Jon, and Raymond E. Jones, editors. “Preface.” The Harbrace Anthology of Poetry. 5th ed., Nelson College, 2006.
Throughout history, storytelling has long been a method of entertainment, education, and sharing of culture.
Through storytelling, the speaker can instill lessons about history, customs, values, facts of life, and cultural beliefs. Spanning generations, the oral traditions of Native cultures brought together communities through shared secular stories, legends, cultural histories, and myths. Storytellers manipulate the malleable structure of storytelling to interweave personal life lessons, humorous experiences, or cultural morals to connect with others.
Storytelling fosters culture and community; allows connection and relationships with others. The congregation of individuals during storytelling rituals bond people through the shared experience of listening to the telling of the story. The listeners actively hear, interpret, and identify with the story as a collective unit. This is similar to the magic of theatre: meaning and emphasis are created when the audience (listeners) interact (identify) with the play (story). There is value and intensity in experiencing – conceptualizing – art together.
Storytelling is an important cultural action. Strong relationships, cultivated from shared experiences, lessons, and history, form the pillars of recognizable culture. Undeniably, the art of storytelling, found in many oral traditions of Native and Indigenous cultures, has bound communities together and continues to support a shared cultural history.
In European history, oral storytelling is often found in folklore and fairy tales. Folk narratives developed at a time when most peoples couldn’t read. Stories and moral tales were passed along by word-of-mouth and often changed by the speaker. The speaker would add emphasis where they pleased (perhaps they changed details because they forgot exactly how they heard it the first time) or the speaker may add constructive elements such as social criticisms, religious lessons, or the hardening of gender norms.
The malleable design of oral storytelling and its ability to travel great distances is one reason why similar oral stories can be found in many different cultures. Consider, for example,
Yeh-Hsien, the Chinese Cinderella story (often cited as the oldest Cinderella story).
Vetalapañcavimsati, a Tibetan Cinderella-like tale.
And “The Little Glass Slipper” recorded by Charles Perrault.
I encourage you to research oral storytelling; whether you’re led into learning about parietal art and art history, indigenous cultures, moral tales, poetry styles, or something else, you’ll be sure to learn something you likely have never considered before.
“Throughout our lives, we seek to understand ourselves, our emotions, our experiences, and our relationships with others. We also attempt to define our connections to larger social and cultural institutions. One way that we can do that is through literature, for works of literature are the records of individual responses to the world in which we live.”
* Scott C. Jon, and Raymond E. Jones, editors. “General Introduction.” The Harbrace Anthology of Poetry. 5th ed., Nelson College, 2006.
