The storytelling festival as ritualization of the storytelling revival mythos
Sobol, Joseph Daniel
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/678
Description
Title
The storytelling festival as ritualization of the storytelling revival mythos
Author(s)
Sobol, Joseph Daniel
Issue Date
1998
Keyword(s)
Storytelling
Abstract
I would suggest that in the liminoid spaces of storytelling festivals,
where the primary communal mythos of the revival is being built, the
ancient story of transgression and redemption is woven again, in metaphoric
resonance with the stories told from the stage. A powerful subtext
of these outward performances is the wonder tale of the storyteller herself,
framed by the magic circle of the festival spotlight as the hero/ine of
a cultural quest. Through the pilgrimage of the performing artist's path,
she seeks to redeem society from its Hamlin-like sin of denying story and
the primal unity that is story's gift. The storytelling festival became, for its
most involved participants, a way of enacting a ritualized happy ending to
the tale of the storyteller's journey. For the teller on stage, the festival is a
homecoming, a redemption, a wedding of teller to traditions and to an
idealized community. For the committed audience, the festival is redeeming, too: a homecoming to a kingdom in which storytelling is restored to
its rightful place at the center of community life.
Publisher
Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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