Courses
033:115/01J:115
What is Storytelling For?
THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
PROGRAM IN LITERATURE, SCIENCE & THE ARTS
INSTRUCTORS
Amy Peterson • ajp@avalon.net
Steve McGuire • s-mcguire@uiowa.edu
13-E North Hall, tel. 335-3011 • Office Hrs. M 10 -12
& by appt.
OVERVIEW
This course aims to illuminate storytelling's importance in
our lives and in human societies, and to help students develop
their own philosophy of the role of storytelling in their
own and others' acts of interpretation. On a personal level,
our capacity to create pictures of how lives should be led
and how our own lives intertwine with others' comes down to
telling stories. To be sure, storytelling has an entertainment
value, but stories are told for the purpose of explaining
why something happened one way instead of another. On a broader
social scale, it is through shared stories that we acquire
common cultural understandings of our own communities—be
they local, national or global—and the moral expectations
and boundaries of those communities. Our discussions, readings,
writings, presentations, and other individual and collective
exercises and efforts are intended to advance several things
simultaneously: your skills as an effective storyteller, your
abilities to interpret stories that others tell, and your
understanding of how storytelling connects moments of lived
experience and ideas to suggest particular meanings.
A major part of the course entails developing stories based
on personal experiences, be they mundane or exotic, and from
insights gleaned from reflecting on those experiences and
setting them up against others' experiences, and sharing these
stories through performance. Our goal is to help you begin
to recognize how storytelling underpins curiosity and inquiry,
affirms relationships, and also carries implied challenges
for both tellers and recipients. At a deep level, storytelling
represents a commitment to understand better what something
means. The complexity of knowledge you already possess in
your personal stories, the rich store of culturally common
stories you share with others, and your ability to imagine
alternative versions of stories in a spirit of openness and
tolerance all these provide a basis for learning as well as
for living.
COURSE
FORMAT
The course revolves around discussion and storytelling performances.
Each Monday meeting there will be discussion of course topics
and readings, and, storytelling performances, which will take
up the major portion of class time.
ASSIGNMENTS
& OTHER OBLIGATIONS
Readings and responses. Distribution of additional materials
will be arranged in class. You are expected to keep up with
assigned reading, and periodically to prepare brief written
summaries or analyses of the material (2 double-spaced typed
pages, using 1-inch margins and 12-point font).
Storytelling
performance: Each student will perform at least six 10-minute,
stories during the course of the semester. The storytelling
component of this course is meant to provide you with experience
before an audience. Emphasis is placed on your involvement
with your storytelling, so that you will not be graded on
“talent, but rather on: (a) the expression of idiosyncratic
meanings, (b) whether, in your involvement with your storytelling,
you made discoveries about form and approach, (c) your reflection
on your storytelling performance upon completion.
(2) Evaluating your performance: Each student will compose
a written critique of their performance using a guide presented
below.
(3) Class participation and contributions, including active
listening and constructive responses to classmates work.
Additional
instructions for assignments will be provided in class.
GRADING
Your course grade will incorporate the following components
(we do assign plusses or minuses):
Storytelling performances: 40% of total
Reporting project: 35 % of total
Other class contributions: 25 % of total
OTHER
COURSE POLICIES & INFORMATION
Attendance is not optional
Except in cases of death in the family, illness serious enough
to keep you home, or other genuine emergencies or crises,
you are expected to attend all meetings of lecture and section.
More than one unexcused absence will result in a lowering
of your course grade; multiple absences can result in a failing
grade. If you must miss a class, notify the instructors in
person or by e-mail in advance; if extenuating circumstances
make advance notice impossible, you must provide a written
explanation of your absence as soon as possible.
Arriving to class late/leaving class early. This is disruptive
so please do not arrive late, and of course, don’t leave
early.
Meeting deadlines
You will be marked down for failing to meet deadlines. If
you anticipate a problem with a deadline, you must notify
the instructors in advance.
Homework
Expectation
For each semester hour of credit that a you should expect
to spend approximately two hours per week outside of class
preparing for class sessions. That is, in a three-credit-hour
course, we assume that you will spend six hours per week in
out-of-class preparation.
Special
accommodations. We will make reasonable accommodations
for students with physical, mental or learning disabilities.
Students with disabilities which may require some modification
of seating, testing, or other class requirements (during our
office hours) so that appropriate arrangements may be made.
It is the student's responsibility to contact Student Disability
Services, 3100 Burge Hall (335-1462) and obtain a Student
Academic Accommodation Request form (SAAR). The form will
specify what course accommodations are judged reasonable for
that student. An instructor who cannot provide the accommodations
specified, or has concerns about the accommodations, must
contact the Student Disability Services counselor who signed
the request form within 48 hours of receiving the form from
the student.
Concerns
related to the course
All students in the College have specific rights and responsibilities.
You have the right to adjudication of any complaints you have
about classroom activities or instructor actions. Information
on these procedures is available in the Schedule of Courses
and on-line in the College's Student Academic Handbook (http://www.clas.uiowa.edu/students/academic_handbook/).
You also have the right to expect a classroom environment
that enables you to learn. We are open to hearing student
concerns related to the course and wish to know your thoughts.
Speak with us during office hours and/or e-mail us. Departmental/Collegiate
Complaint Procedures
Departmental/Collegiate
Complaint Procedures
A student who has a complaint against any member of the college's
teaching staff is responsible for following the procedures
described in the Student Academic Handbook, which is available
on the web site of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences:
http://www.clas.uiowa.edu/students/academic_handbook/.
The student should attempt to resolve the issue with the faculty
member or teaching assistant involved. Lacking a satisfactory
outcome, the student can turn to the department chair, Helena
Dettmer, Division of Interdiscilinary Programs 404 JB, 1 319
335 3821. If a satisfactory outcome still is not obtained,
the student can turn to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
and submit a written complaint to the Associate Dean for Academic
Programs, 120 Schaeffer Hall, (335-2633). Complaints may concern
inappropriate faculty conduct (including inappropriate course
materials), incompetence in oral communication, inequities
in assignments, scheduling of examinations at other than authorized
and published times, failure to provide disability accommodations,
or grading grievances. In complaints involving the assignment
of grades, it is college policy that grades cannot be changed
without the permission of the department concerned.
Plagiarism
And Cheating
You are expected to be honest and honorable in your fulfillment
of assignments and in test-taking situations. Plagiarism and
cheating are serious forms of academic misconduct. Examples
of them are given in the Student Academic Handbook: http://www.clas.uiowa.edu/students/academic_handbook/.
An instructor who suspects a student of plagiarism or cheating
must inform the student (in writing) as soon as possible after
the incident has been observed or discovered. Instructors
who detect cheating or plagiarism may decide, in consultation
with the departmental executive officer, to reduce the student's
grade on the assignment or the course, even to assign an F.
The instructor writes an account of the chronology of the
plagiarism or cheating incident for the departmental executive
officer who sends an endorsement of the written report of
the case to the Associate Dean for academic programs. A copy
of the report will be sent to the student.
Your
Responsibilities
Your responsibilities to this class-and to your education
as a whole-include attendance and participation. This syllabus
details specific expectations the instructor about attendance
and participation. You have a responsibility to help create
a classroom environment where all may learn. At the most basic
level, this means you will respect the other members of the
class and the instructor and treat them with the courtesy
you hope to receive in return.
Methods
For Learning and Performing a Story
Everyone has his or her own favorite methods.
The following are suggestions, but you should find the method
that works best for you personally. The most important thing,
of course, is practice, practice, and practice! Not necessarily,
though, the story you plan to tell. But rather, tell stories
often.
Telling stories is less about memorized words than about returning
to a memory or feeling. You always retell in telling a story.
Storytelling is not memorizing words. In fact, trying to memorize
words can eventually result in a ruined performance. So: Don't
be afraid you'll forget the words. It is much easier to tell
a story as a series of images than as a set of memorized words.
Make a story map (a listing of key words,
phrases, or scenes in sequence).
“What were you thinking?”
I was 12 years old, “Steve, what do you want to paint?”
My grandfather became an artist in an ordinary but roundabout
way.
Demon Hot Wheel.
Gateway Sporting Goods on the Plaza
I hung the painting to dry in my room on a white brick chimney.
Later in that summer, two new Hot wheels were issued,
Some years later, August, 1994, The caption says,
“Twenty-five below zero,
It was an image that was demanding.
Wouldn’t you know, several weeks later, February 19th,
1995, “What were you thinking? What was in your head”
“Thump!” up against a tree……. I
was eighteen years old,
As I laid on the trail that night, the Northern Lights cascaded
green above me,
and I thought, “Isn’t that a magnificent image?
….Martin Buser
In a heart-beat I was torn from my bicycle
Twenty hours later, fifty-one hours after the race began,
I showed my father that photograph Later that summer in 1970,
Fate should have it so wonderful.
I handed Don Prudhomme my grandpa's camera
Now, I tell you this because as I stood at the finish line
of the Idita-Bike, I realized that a long time ago I had learned
a lesson from a hidden teacher: If you pay attention to the
images in your head and follow them all the way through, you
will always be heading in the right direction.
Tell the story to anyone (or anything) that
will listen, such as dogs, cats, friends, and family. The
more the story is told, the more firmly it will be planted
in your voice.
Tell
the story to yourself whenever you have a chance - when walking
the dog, washing the dishes, waiting for a ride. You will
learn the story well enough thatyou will be able to tell it
even if you are distracted while performing (for example,
if a baby starts crying).
Performance Presence
Tell the story in the your own words (However,
it is often helpful to memorize the first and last lines of
the story. This way the story will start and end smoothly.)
Acting a story can be a problem. Sometimes exaggerated movements
are overplayed in storytelling.
Look at people in the audience before you begin and find a
few faces that you imagine will support your telling. But
don't scan the audience in a forced, artificial way. Keep
in mind that meeting the eyes of people in the audience happens
because you're trying to explain something better to someone;
not being an actor matters in the eye contact of storytelling.
The beginning of the story is often the hardest part of telling
it. You have to let go of things and enter the story -- "Use
the 'Fork' Luke."
While listening to others, model the kind of listening you
expect while telling. Doing this, you hear better and in turn
learn more about how to tell better.
Projection You should project your voice so that all can hear.
Diction You should enunciate carefully and
use your voice effectively.
Poise You should be relaxed (as much as you
can be) in you story performance. Store away a story you seem
to be resisting-- it's like not telling a story you're not
sure you should tell to a particular person -- for now. There
are millions of stories. You may grow into telling it later.
Personality The flavor of the story should
be brought out by your performance, i.e., humorous story,
scary story.
Time The story must last less than ten (10)
minutes.
Questions to consider regarding your stories,
pre-storytelling and “Response” to your story,
post-storytelling
For your response to your story (3 double-spaced typed pages,
using 1-inch margins and 12-point font) answer questions 1
through 5 below and five questions from6 through 10.
1. What new idea or truth stemming from your story occurred
to you while or after telling your story to the audience?
2. Does the beginning draw the audience in,
or could it be improved upon (consider and memorize the opening
sentence, in particular…)?
3. Where do you sense rhythm in your story? Is there a refrain?
How does the language flow/sound? Are you using repetition
or parallelism in interesting ways? What images or words are
repeated and to what effect?
4. What does the ending do to your audience?
How will it make your listeners feel? How could the ending
be more effective at creating some sense of movement or resolution
in the piece?
5. How would you answer the question “What
is this about” in a single sentence? Trace indices of
this sentence back through the course of your story.
6. Is the middle section organized in a manner
that keeps your audience attentive, or are there spots that
are still muddled? What strategies are available to vary the
pace? More dialogue? More action? More detail? What details
are required by an audience, and when is it appropriate to
provide those details? Are there sufficient details about
the setting? Details to convey character? Details to create
a mood?
7. Are there moments in which you linger longer?
Where/why? Does the “where/why” have an emotional/personal
motivation or a communicative/narrative motivation? (And how
do the two different motivations lead to different effects?)
8. What metaphors or details are distracting,
and which might be helpful to serve the main themes/character
descriptions/settings, etc.?
9. Is your “voice” distinctive?
How would you describe it? Formal? Funny? Wistful? Sarcastic?
Straightforward? Analytical? Critical? Poetic? Etc.? Two voices
at once (irony)? If so, are they in conflict, or supportive
of each other?
10. How would you describe the change that
occurs in a main character in your story? What clues prepare
the audience for the credibility of that change?
11. How would you characterize the balance
between narrative (showing) and exposition (telling) in your
story? The rule tends to be “more show, less tell”:
do you think you have hit a balance between the two in your
story?
12. What kind of sentences and lexicon are
you utilizing?
13. Is there a clear conflict in this piece?
Do you as the narrator have a clear stake in what happens?
How does that stake influence your story?
14. Is the nominal subject—or story
of action—clear or are there places where you are unclear
about real time and place?
Story themes of the course:
It was an Educational Experience.
What were you thinking?
Ethical dilemma.
Proverb
A repeated story
A place to begin.
It was an Educational Experience.
I feel most creative very early in the morning.
But I’m never awake then.
--Elliot Goldenthal, composer of “Interview with the
Vampire”
Notes
on The Kicker
The kicker is a short sentence that comes
at the end of a series of longer sentences or at the conclusion
of a full paragraph. Its effect depends on context, of course:
it might be the kind of searing insight that serves to deepen
what comes before, a jolt of surprise. Chris Anderson, author
of Free Style, says what gives short sentences their power
is their rareness. “We live in a world of empty promises,
everything inflated for salesmanship or status. People just
don’t expect writers to come out and say what they mean.
When you do, you catch them by surprise, making them sit up
and notice.” Often the kicker operates the same way
a punch line to a joke does, illustrating Shakespeare’s
belief: “Brevity is the soul of wit.”
Two
examples:
From Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott:
I believed, before I sold my first book, that
publication would be instantly and automatically gratifying,
an affirming and romantic experience, a Hallmark commercial
where one runs and leaps in slow motion across a meadow filled
with wildflowers into the arms of acclaim and self-esteem.
This did not happen for me.
From Jo Ann Beard’s Boys of My Youth:
I feel like a rabid dog, but I smile placidly
and make idle chat with the wife of his best friend, the future
chiseler. In the car on the way home I say to him in the most
dangerous tone I can come up with, “You have got to
treat me like an equal.” The wiper blades clock back
and forth, car lights bear down and then pass. He says, looking
straight ahead through the glistening windshield, simply and
sadly, “I can’t.”
Homework
for your first story: Be aware of the power of kickers: Do
you use one or more of them? Is your kicker a true kicker?
Is it in danger of falling flat? Why or why not? Distinguish
carefully between a kicker and a moral-of-the-story.
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