Area of investigation: Narrative in relation to technology, grammar, syntax, and typology, hypertextual communication, open-system and multiple-thread narratives, interactive games, the role of biological and machinic bodies in storytelling, emergent narrative tools.

Course description: This studio course is designed to promote a theoretical and practical exploration of the issues of storytelling and other kinds of aesthetically marked verbal language and interaction in technologically enriched spaces.

We will use the tools and techniques of narrative theory, linguistics, psychoanalysis, sociology, computer animation, and interface design to create spaces in which people interact around narrated stories and other kinds of verbal play (jokes, pick-up lines, urban legends, ritual insults). We will emphasize the kinds of interaction that elicit verbal play, and how to enable, engage and enhance such interaction in real-time spaces that incorporate real and virtual participants.

Storytelling iincludes a wide variety of academic disciplines, including Anthropology, Communication, Creative Arts Therapy, Education, Ethnomusicology, Folklore, History, Library and Information Sciences, Literature (English, Comparative, etc.), Performance Studies, Psychology, Sociology, Speech, Theater, and Theology. Each of these disciplines has a unique and valuable perspective on storytelling. Folklore, with its emphasis on the study of specific processes of verbal arts, has developed an especially rich heritage of studying storytelling on historical, ethnographic, and mechanical levels.

Although one academic definition of storytelling is that it involves only the telling of folktales, for the purposes of this course storytelling will be defined in the broadest possible way, as the relating of a series of events. Storytelling is a synaesthetic activity, involving the entire sensorium. Although storytelling is a universal activity, it occurs in unique forms in every culture and sub-culture, and, generally-speaking, one needs to understand the local vernacular language before one can understand what community members are doing with the language in storytelling events.

The course is divided into theory (discussion) and practice (making). For the theory we will discuss the stories we tell or make in class. For the practice -- which is most of class time -- we invoke the Convergent Media Prime Directive that theory flows from the act of making, rather than the other way around. We will make stuff -- things that make concrete and visible the nature and qualities of sctorytelling. The stuff you make can be in any form: sound, video, computer animation, collage, sculpture, assemblage, performance, you name it. I expect humor, irony, uncommon approaches and bizarre techniques. We will provide you with technical assistance where practicable, but this course does not necessarily teach complete technical skill sets.

Materials:

Scott McCloud: Understanding Comics

Toni Morrison: Beloved

Homer (we think): The Odyssey

Riven

Riven is arguably the best story-oriented computer game ever produced. As part of the course you are required to:

buy a copy of Riven and play it as close to the conclusion as you can get;

keep detailed notes on how the narrative thread develops:

1. Visually -- how does the visual setting affect the narrative flow

2. Aurally -- how does Riven use sound cues to move the narrative along and to enhance the environments

3. Spatially -- how does the narrative work in relationship to movement through space

Story journal: a notebook in which you collect:

1. Personal connections to storytelling (12 entries)

2. Reviews of books and online resources related to storytelling (10 entries)

3. Class notes

4. Story selection forms (at least 4 entries)

5. Small group critique forms (for at least 4 stories)

6. Reviews of storytelling events and guest speakers (at least 3 entries)

You turn ithe journal in at the end of the semester. Your journal gives me some sense of how you think about the course and how your ideas evolve over the semester. It takes the place of written midterm exams or mini-projects. The method is simple: If you have an idea for a piece of work, or a sketch or drawing, note it down. If you find a useful idea or photo or a saying from a magazine, paste it in. At the beginning of the semester I'll show you one or two of my journals to give you a sense of what I'm looking for.

More Info:

In addition to your project you must submit documentation, i.e., a thorough, articulate description, photographic record, and sound files of the project, in web-ready form, so we can link it to the ACTLab web page. Don't slight this step, because a spectacular web page significantly raises your visibility as a Convergent Media professional, and I take notice of that. No grade will be issued until this requirement is satisfied.

End of semester cleanup. You leave the ACTLab in the same condition in which you found it at the beginning of the semester. No grades will be issued until this requirement is fulfilled. If one person doesn't do their job, no one gets a grade -- i.e., all classes are responsible for the workspace and you are responsible for each other.

Grading: Your grade in this course will be determined by your effort and participation. You will choose your grade in this course by deciding how much of the coursework you will complete. There will be a total of 600 points available as follows:

Story journal 200 points

Storytelling 200 points

Final project 200 points

If your story journal contains the minimum number of required entries, you will earn the full 200 points for the assignment. You will lose 10 points for each missing entry in the journal. Journal topics will be given out each Tuesday, and entries will be due the following Monday. The entire journal will be collected near the end of the semester.

For storytelling, you will earn 50 points each time you tell a story (in any of the media within our purview) to the class, assuming that your story is appropriate for the class and well-prepared. I reserve the right to deduct points for stories that are inappropriate or inadequately prepared.

Final grade is calculated as follows:

560 - 600 points A

520 - 559 points B

480 - 519 points C

440 - 479 points D

Less than 440 points F

Course content:

I. What storytelling is and does

A. Function

B. History

C. Power and value

II. Elements of stories

A. Beginning, middle, end

B. Setting

C. Character

D. Plot (problem and resolution)

E. Dialogue

F. Theme, lesson, moral

G. Conclusion

III. Types of stories

A. Personal or family

B. Cultural

C. Historical

D. Literary

E. Genres

1. Folk tales

2. Fairy tales

3. Myth

4. Legends

5. Parables

6. Fables

IV. Selecting and preparing

A. Sources of stories

B. Methods of preparation

1. Imaging

2. Memory devices

C. Tools of verbal storytelling

1. Voice

2. Movement and space

3. Direct dialogue

4. Eye contact

5. Audience participation

6. Props

D. Tools of technological storytelling

1. Computer, software

2. Camera

3. Lighting

4. Sound

5. Paint

6. Sculptural tools

7. Anything you can imagine

V. Practice and performance

A. Small group practice and critique

B. Whole group performance

C. Showcase performance

Schedule (subject to change):

Tue Jan 15 INTRODUCTION: Biz

Thu Jan 17 INTRODUCTION cont'd

What are stories?

What are not stories?

Analyze the story I told on Tuesday.

Write/tell/produce a story in class.

Tue Jan 22 The Concept of Genre; Genres of Storytelling

Genres are kinda like categories. We can speak of a genre as a thing or as a process. Approximately 80 verbal arts or genres have been identified. Some of these are conversational, some are more formal and monologic. Individual cultures have many regulations regarding genres of storytelling: certain types of stories can only be told in certain ways, by certain people, and in certain times and places.

Readings:

a) Ben-Amos, Dan. 1976 (1969). "Analytical Categories and Ethnic Genres."

b) Harris, Trudier. 1995. "Genre."

c) Abrahams, Roger. 1981. "In and Out of Performance."

d) Abrahams, Roger. 1968. "A Rhetoric of Everyday Life: Traditional Conversational Genres."

e) Abrahams, Roger. 1976 (1969). "The Complex Relations of Simple Forms."

Thu Jan 24 Discussion of the genre: What spaces and times elicit verbal play?

ASSIGNMENT: Read The Odyssey and see the film O Brother Where Art Thou? You have two weeks to complete this -- ready, set, go!

Tue Jan 29 Orality and Literacy

What are possible differences between the form and content of stories that are composed and transmitted orally, as opposed to through writing? In this session, we will look at the communicative process that exists between tellers and listeners, and also at some of the constructions of grammar and syntax commonly used in oral narrative.

Readings:

a) Sturm, Brian. "The 'Storylistening' Trance Experience."

b) Ong, Walter. 1982. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word,

pp. 5-15, 31-77.

c) Jakobson, Roman. 1960. "Linguistics and Poetics."

d) Jakobson, Roman. 1966. "Grammatical Parallelism and Its Russian Facet."

e) Keil, Charles. 1987. "Participatory Discrepancies and the Power of Music."

Thu Jan 31

Discussion: The Odyssey,Homer (Oral/epic/quest)

Assignment I due:

What is the story?

How is it told?

What does it tell you about storytelling in general?

Tue Feb 5 NARRATOLOGY

FABULA

Narratology, Bal pp 3-15 (Introduction), pp 175-194 (Events), pp 208-219 (Time)

The Art of Fiction, Henry James [from Essentials of the Art of Fiction, ed. Michael Hoffman and Patrick Murphy (Duke U press, 1993)]

Genres of verbal art, the role of verbal art in children's development, in the construction of community. Differences between verbal play and games.

Thu Feb 7 Paralinguistic Aspects of Storytelling

We perpetually comment upon and add to what we're saying though tone and pitch of voice, and through facial expressions and body movements. Especially interesting for us is how storytellers may alternate between various styles of speaking, chanting, and singing.

Role of embodiment in verbal play. Interaction style and body movement in storytelling.

interactive spaces for storytelling. MUDs, MOOs, computer games, RPGs, online multiplayer games.

Readings:

a) Feld, Steven, and Aaron Fox. 1994. "Music and Language."

b) Kendon, Adam. 1993. "Gesture."

c) McNeil, David. 1992. Hand and Mind: What Gestures Reveal about Thought, pp. 1-36.

d) Birdwhistell, Ray. 1970. "'Redundancy' in Multi-Channel Communication Systems."

Tue Feb 12 STORYTELLING AND TRAUMA

The Turn of the Screw , Henry James

Narratology, Bal pages 43-77 and 142 - 160

In-class screening: La Jetee, Chris Marker

Thu Feb 14 COUNTER NARRATIVE

Choose a character from a story we're all familiar with and write a counter narrative from that character's point of view.

Read or watch posted or videotaped stories by classmembers and faculty.

Tue Feb 19 The Ethnography of Speaking

In 1962, Dell Hymes proposed that languages should not just be studied as abstract systems: he was also interested in the ways in which languages are put to use. Hymes called for scholars to observe the full range of communicative resources in a community: only through such holistic study would each locally-defined genre make sense, for these genres complement each other.

Readings:

a) Hymes, Dell. 1962. "The Ethnography of Speaking."

b) Hymes, Dell. 1972. "Models of the Interaction of Language and Social Life."

c) Bauman, Richard, and Charles L. Briggs. 1990. "Poetics and Performance as Critical Perspectives on Language and Social Life."

d) Abrahams, Roger. 1974. "Black Talking on the Streets."

Read Toni Morrison's Beloved for next week.

Thu Feb 21 THE NOVEL AND THE STORY

Beloved

Tue Feb 26 The Performance-centered Approach to Folklore

In the 1960's and 70's, a group of folklorists declared that it was important to look at the communicative event and its place in society, not just at the story being told. Before this movement, many scholars who studied myths, folktales, and legends tended to focus on the plotlines of stories alone.

Another contribution of performance-oriented folklorists has been the identification of three levels that exist in storytelling: 1) the actual event; 2) the story about that event (narration of event); and 3) the social situation in which the narrative is told (narrative event). These three levels interact and coalesce in interesting ways.

Readings:

a) Dundes, Alan. 1964. "Texture, Text, and Context."

b) Bauman, Richard. 1977. Verbal Art as Performance, pp. 3-60.

c) Georges, Robert. 1969. "Toward an Understanding of Storytelling Events."

d) Hymes, Dell. 1975. "Breakthrough into Performance."

Thu Feb 28 TRAUMA AND MEMORY

The Storyteller, Walter Benjamin

Beloved, Toni Morrison

Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock

Tue Mar 5 Film: Shoah (excerpts)

Thu Mar 7 Discussion of final projects-to-be

SPRING BREAK

Tue Mar 19 Projects: Resources: What resources (technological, methodological, physical) exist for us to mobilize for projects?

Thu Mar 21 (Spring Equinox - a good time for stories) VISUAL NARRATIVES: Film, sculpture, architecture, painting

Tue Mar 26 TRAUMA AND MEMORY II

Holocaust Testimonies Lawrence Langer (selections)

Cover Stories: Conversations with Lawrence Weschler , Francoise Mouly

Vertigo

Hiroshima, Mon Amour

Thu Mar 28 Conversation Analysis

Conversation is the most fluid arena for storytelling: the opposite end of the spectrum would be a monologue delivered from a stage. In conversation, we tell stories to each other: roles of teller and listener can change by the moment. A distinction must be made between, in conversational storytelling, the telling of recognized traditional stories, and just telling about what happened somewhere. Of course even in the most "spontaneous" forms of telling, people follow patterns of form and content.

Readings:

a) Sacks, Harvey, Emanuel Schegloff, and Gail Jefferson. 1974. "A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation."

b) Tannen, Deborah. 1983. "When Is an Overlap Not an Interruption? One Component of Conversational Style."

c) Tannen, Deborah. 1981. "New York Jewish Conversational Style."

March 29: Visual Narratives II: FILM

MAUS I, Spiegelman

Tue Apr 2 Conversation Analysis II

Tellers are perpetually receiving feedback from listeners: one can almost say that tellers and listeners are co-storytelling, or that listeners tell stories to themselves through tellers. Two ways that conversation is important to storytelling are: 1) a teller has an ongoing (largely paralinguistic) conversation with each listener; and, 2) tellers often enact conversations between story characters.

Readings:

a) Goodwin, Charles. 1984. "Notes on Story Structure and the Organization of Participation."

b) Goodwin, Charles. 1986. "Audience Diversity, Participation, and Interpretation."

c) Goodwin, M. H. 1982. "'Instigating': Storytelling as Social Process."

d) Jefferson, Gail. 1978. "Sequential Aspects of Storytelling in Conversation."

Thu Apr 4 SCULPTURE

The Gates of Hell, Rosalind Krauss (handout)

Cremaster 4, Matthew Barney (Outside Screening)

Recommended: Silence Please!, ed. Louise Neri (selections)

Tue Apr 9 Interaction Analysis

Interaction analysis does not center on speaking, but rather on the general behavior of people in social situations. One way in which this field is related to storytelling is that the social situation defines, or at least influences, what types of stories and storytelling can occur within it.

Readings:

a) Goffman, Erving. 1964. "The Neglected Situation."

b) Goffman, Erving. 1968. "On Face-Work: An Analysis of Ritual Elements in Social Interaction."

c) Kendon, Adam. 1973. "The Role of Visible Behavior in the Organization of Face-to-face Interaction."

d) Kendon, Adam. 1992. "The Negotiation of Context in Face-to-Face Interaction."

Thu Apr 11 Matthew Barney: Storytelling in the Digital Age

Houdini's Premonition: Vaudeville and the Internet, Thyrza Nichols Goodeve (xerox)

Murray: 1-12; 27-96

Framing

The study of framing is an aspect of interaction analysis. Through framing, one participant in a social situation signals to others what she/he believes is happening:

what genre of relationship is occurring, or what genre of story is being told. The Georges article is included on the grounds that digression is an example of breaking frame.

Readings:

a) Bateson, Gregory. 1955. "A Theory of Play and Fantasy."

b) Bateson, Gregory. 1956. "The Message, 'This Is Play.'"

c) Goffman, Erving. 1974. Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience, pp. 1-39.

d) Georges, Robert. 1983. "Do Narrators Really Digress?: A Reconsideration of Audience Asides in Narrating."

e) Young, Katharine. 1983. Taleworlds and Storyrealms, pp. 19-68.

Tue Apr 16 Mediatization

Mediatization involves seeking a wider audience for the storytelling event, and may actually involve transposing the storytelling event into electronic media, so that performances are presented via radio, television, webcasting, videoconferencing, etc. Mediatization may be initiated by anyone: the storyteller, scholars, media professionals; or members of government, development, non-profit, and other types of foundations, organizations, and agencies. When people mediatize storytelling, what tends to be lost, and what can be gained? We will also discuss ways that media can be used to teach forms of storytelling, and the ethical and practical issues that can arise in this process. The Heideigger essay provides an excellent philosophical approach to the use of technology: it explains how technology generally involves a bringing forth and an unconcealment.

Readings:

a) Heidegger, Martin. 1977. "The Question Concerning Technology."

b) Reynolds, Dwight. 1998. "From the Delta to Detroit: Packaging a Folk Epic for a New Folk."

c) Katz, Elihu. 1977. "Can Authentic Cultures Survive New Media?"

d) Ginsberg, Faye. 1992. "Indigenous Media: Faustian Contract or Global Media?"

e) Price, Monroe. 1999. "Satellite Broadcasting as Trade Routes in the Sky."

Thu Apr 18 Words and Sounds

To speak can be to act. Storytelling often involves using traditional elements (expressions, proverbs, stories themselves) to comment upon the present.

Readings:

a) Austin, J. L. 1992 (1962). How To Do Things With Words, pp. 1-24.

b) Arewa, E. Ojo, and Alan Dundes. 1964. "Proverbs and the Ethnography of Speaking Folklore."

c) Abrahams, Roger. 1986. "Complicity and Imitation in Storytelling: A Pragmatist Folklorist's Perspective."

d) Ray, Benjamin. 1973. "Performative Utterances in African Rituals."

Tue Apr 23 Roleplaying and Identifying

In the course of a storytelling event, tellers enact story figures. Listeners may identify with story figures, and even occasionally exhibit this through movements and sounds. A principle of rhetoric is to "induce the auditor to participate in the form as a 'universal' locus of appeal... Imagery invites us to respond in accordance to its nature" (Burke 1950, p. 59).

Readings:

a) Burke, Kenneth. 1950. A Rhetoric of Motives, pp. 19-37, 55-59.

b) Dewey, John. 1934. Art as Experience, pp. 35-57 ("Having an Experience").

c) Sawyer, Keith. 1997. Pretend Play as Improvisation: Conversation in the Preschool Classroom, pp. xvii-xxviii, 1-28.

Thu Apr 25 The Oral-formulaic Theory of Composition

A precursor to the performance-centered approach to folklore, the oral-formulaic theory of composition was developed by Milman Parry in the 1930s as he conducted research with epic-chanters in Yugoslavia. One of his question was: How could epic-singers perform for hours and hours? His answer was that they did not actually memorize all the words, but rather composed in the course of performance, calling on vast reservoirs of memorized pieces: phrases, scenes, etc. The oral-formulaic theory of composition presents a model of improvisation.

Readings:

a) Lord, Albert, and Milman Parry. 1960. The Singer of Tales, pp. 3-98.

b) Foley, John Miles. 1985. Oral-formulaic Theory and Research: An Introduction and Annotated Bibliography, Intro.

Tue Apr 30 Textualization

Textualization involves making a record, often with commentary, of the storytelling event. A "text" once referred specifically to writing and print, but it has recently been expanded to include any sort of recording. While performers may also seek to make texts of their performances, textualization generally has been done by scholars, for the purposes of study and publication. Included in this session will be discussion of the relationships a scholar may have with local performers, research assistants, and native scholars. We will discuss ways of translating from social and spoken event to print; and from one language to another. The concept of the interactive text will be introduced: the interactive text enables an ongoing conversation between the scholar, the performer, and other interested parties.

Readings:

a) Fine, Elizabeth. 1984. The Folklore Text: From Performance to Print, pp. 16-88.

b) Goldstein, Kenneth. 1964. A Guide for Field Workers in Folklore, pp. 77-104 ("Observation Collecting Methods").

c) Tedlock, Dennis. 1992. "Ethnopoetics."

c) Honko, Lauri. 2000. Textualization of Oral Epics, pp. 3-56 ("Text as Process and Practice").

d) Howard, Alan. 1988. "Hypermedia and the Future of Ethnography."

Thu May 2 Workshop/studio

Tue May 4 Workshop/studio

PRESENTATIONS: Date TBA

FINAL PROJECTS

Open to students, faculty, and the public

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Optional background readings and additional resources:

Abrahams, R. 1962. Playing the Dozens. Journal of American Folklore 75, pp. 209-218

Keith Basso. 1979. Portraits of the Whiteman

Aytoun Ellis. 1956. The Penny Universities; A history of the coffee-houses.

Ralph Hattox. 1985. Coffee and Coffeehouses: The Origins of a Social Beverage in the Medieval Near East.

Brenda Laurel (ed). 1990. The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design

Brenda Laurel. 1993. Computers as Theater

Charlotte Linde. 1993. Life Stories: the Creation of Coherence

Murray, Janet. 1991. Anatomy of a New Medium: Literary & Pedagogic Uses of Advanced Linguistic Computer Structures. Computers & the Humanities, 25 1-14.

Iona & Peter Opie. 1959. The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren Iona & Peter Opie. 1969. Children's Games in Street & Playground

Percelay, J., Ivey, M., and Dweck, S. 1994. Snaps

Livia Polanyi. 1994. Telling the American Story

Nadia & Daniel Thalmann. 1996. Interactive Computer Animation

D.W. Winnicott. 1971. Playing and Reality

Arthur, Stephen, and Julia Arthur. Your Life and Times: How to Put a Life Story on Tape. Heritage Tree Press. 1986

Bauman, Richard. Verbal Art as Performance. Rowley, MA: Newbury, 1977.

Brecher, Jeremy. History From Below: How to Uncover and Tell the Story of Your Community, Association, or Union. New Haven, CT: Advocate Press. 1986.

Degh, Linda. "Folk Narrative." Folklore and Folklife. Ed. Richard Dorson. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1972.

---. Folktales and Society. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1969.

Fine, Elizabeth C. The Folklore Text: From Performance to Print. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1984.

Georges, Robert. "Toward an Understanding of Storytelling Events." JAF 82 (1969): 313-28.

Glassie, Henry. Passing the Time in Ballymenone: Culture and History of an Ulster Community. Philadelphia: U of Penn P, 1982.

Ives, Edward D. The Tape-Recorded Interview: A Manual for Field Workers in Folklore and Oral History. Revised and enlarged edition. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. 1980.

Lichtman, Allan J. Your Family History: How to use oral history, personal family archives, and public documents to discover your heritage. New York: Random house. 1978.

Moore, Robin. Awakening the Hidden Storyteller: How to Build a Storytelling Tradition in Your Family. Boston: Shambhala. 1991. Also available on audiocassette.

The Fine Print:

Regarding Scholastic Dishonesty: The University defines academic dishonesty as cheating, plagiarism, unauthorized collaboration, falsifying academic records, and any act designed to avoid participating honestly in the learning process.  Scholastic dishonesty also includes, but is not limited to, providing false or misleading information to receive a postponement or an extension on a test, quiz, or other assignment, and submission of essentially the same written assignment for two courses without the prior permission of the instructor.  By accepting this syllabus, you have agreed to these guidelines and must adhere to them.  Scholastic dishonest damages both the student's learning experience and readiness for the future demands of a work-career.  Students who violate University rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and/or dismissal from the University.  For more information on scholastic dishonesty, please visit the Student Judicial services Web site at http://www.utexas.edu/depts/dos/sjs/.

About services for students with disabilities:  The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities.  For more information, contact the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259, 471-4641 TTY. 

About the Undergraduate Writing Center:  The Undergraduate Writing Center, located in the FAC 211, phone 471-6222, offers individualized assistance to students who want to improve their writing skills.  There is no charge, and students may come in on a drop-in or appointment basis.

Disclaimer: This syllabus may contain material from other syllabi written by the instructor or other faculty. Where possible, acknowledgement is given to additional sources.

Warning: This class may contain explicit descriptions of, or may advocate simulations of, one or more of the following: Nudity, satanism, suicide, sodomy, incest, bestiality, sadomasochism, adultery, murder, morbid violence, paedophilia, bad grammar, deviate sexual conduct in a violent context, the use of illegal drugs or alcohol, or offensive behavior. But then again, it may not. Should your sensibilities be offended at any time, you are free to leave the classroom without penalty provided that you notify either the instructor or teaching assistant when you do so.

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