Storytelling

Storytelling is the art of portraying in words, images, and sounds what has happened in real or imagined events. The oldest forms of storytelling were oral. Later, stories could be conveyed by sculptures or writings on stone, wood, or parchment. Modern technology adds to all of the previous techniques for storytelling the motion picture, together with oral dialog, images, sound effects, and musical accompaniment. But whether in olden times or in modern times, the challenge of storytelling was the same: How do you get across the complexity in the events of the story?

Oral traditions
People in all times and places have told stories. In the oral tradition, storytelling depends on an audience: the listeners create the images from the words told by the storyteller. In this, the audience is co-creator of the art. Storytellers dialogue with their audience-adjusting their words to respond to the listeners and adjust to the moment. The intrinsic nature of stories was recently described in A Palpable God, (1997) by Reynolds Price (Akkadine Press) 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. 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." There are many kinds of stories, such as fables, parables, myths, and legends. Stories are of many moods, such as humorous, inspirational, educative, frightening, tragic, romantic. Stories of wise men are well known, such as Solomon and Nasreddin. Modern actors, singers, rappers and comedians can at times be storytellers. 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. Purposes of Storytelling Storytelling had its origin in play activities, with gifted but ordinary folk entertaining their particular social group informally. Gradually these activities were included in religious rituals, historical recitations and educational functions. She found evidence to support many theories on the origins of storytelling, including: (1.)That it grew out of the playful, self-entertainment needs of humans; (2.)That it satisfied the need to explain the surrounding physical world. (3.)That it came about because of an intrinsic religious need in humans to honor or propitiate the supernatural force(s) believed to be present in the world. (4.) That it evolved from the human need to communicate experience to other humans . (5.) That it fulfilled an aesthetic need for beauty, regularity, and form through expressive language and music . (6.) That it stemmed from the desire to record the actions or qualities of one's ancestors, in the hope that this would give them a kind of immortality.