Storytelling
The first thing which we had to do was to find the best or most creative ,dramatic version of the story. In case of myths and legends and find as much information as we can and put the into folder on computer. The more source material that we can find, collate, and combine; the richer our story will be. The next thing we had to do a brief outline of the major thematic elements of my myth. Also I had to include any inciting incidents(I.e. things that drive the action of the story forward.)
So here I will share with you with all my research which I've done this and last week.
Storytelling-is the conveying of events in words, sound and/or images, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation, and instilling moral values. Crucial elements of stories and storytelling include plot, characters and narrative point of view. The term 'storytelling' is used in a narrow sense to refer specifically to oral storytelling and in a looser sense to refer to narrative technique in other media.
Task1: Preliminary Research
Legend (something that should read, something to read, from the Latin). A story or set of stories about characters or historical figures (or considered to be historical). Usually transmitted in the oral tradition long before fixation in writing. Legends tell of sages, saints, rulers, politicians, warriors and other popular characters. Often they consist of improbable or unrealistic motives. They differ from the myths that have a historical basis and talk about people, not gods - although sometimes the difference is difficult to delineate.
The name derives from the medieval terminology and adopted in Western languages. In celebration of the saints was read during the liturgy stories about their lives and miracles. In the twelfth century, the French sources, the word meant legend hagiographic works; already in the late Middle Ages they began to be used also to stories about historical characters. In the nineteenth century, researchers have begun to define the term legend genre. In modern literature, legend is sometimes confused with myth, fable and fairy tale, because some authors mistakenly use the terms interchangeably.
The most famous legends relate to the saints (George, Nicholas), warriors (King Arthur and his knights), or criminals (Faust, Robin Hood). Modern usually consist of biographical gossip and anecdotes concerning the heroes of mass culture, e.g. the dead movie stars or rock musicians (Elvis Presley, Judy Garland, John Lennon) . Legends are one of the main sources of scripts for Hollywood films.
Legends are derived from oral tradition, often handed down from generation to generation. Yet unlisted, modern legends, researchers usually belong to folklore. The oral form of the legend is alive today, because every major event, which brings together people - in person or through information in the media - is reported from various subjective points of view. In this way, a legend of the event, contrasted - often difficult to define - the objective truth about him.In the oral tradition passed down through the ages, it was not easy to keep all details of the events. Even harder to explain their reasons in such a way that there was no doubt as to the possible motives that led to such heroes, and no other action. It remained so wide field to fill gaps in the story through an intuitive combination of various known facts, places and people. Often overlooked some events, and excessively exposed to others - generally depending on the views of the narrator, which introduced a subjective element. Version of the most popular and well-known legend, often significantly different from its original form.
This is what separates legend from myth, fairy tale or fairy tale, it is precisely its relationship with the events and historical figures, as well as with the real topography. The legend always refers to an event or person that locates in a well-defined place. If, according to present knowledge, the hero of legend was not a historical figure, it is considered as such by those who legend told. In this sense, the researchers write, for example, about the legend of Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar, on the other hand, the legend tells of the assumption of Rome by Romulus and Remus.
The starting point was a legend, a historical fact. He became a pretext for further narrative - as the first essential element of the species. The second element was to develop stories based on the views of the narrator, its stereotypes and imagination. Both components can be combined in very unequal proportions of which depended, whether in the legend prevailed historical truth or fiction. Hence, in contemporary literature is sometimes used the term "legend", not very successfully, to identify distorted the historical truth.
Types of legends:
The main type of biographical legends are legends that are usually talk about the whole life of the hero or focus on key events associated with it. Depending on who is the hero of the story, talking about legends of saints (hagiographic), warriors (heroic), rulers or politicians (political) etc.
Beside the legends of biographical researchers distinguish legends space and custom (etiological). Legends tell of local events related to the sanctuary, the village, mountain, etc. They explain the importance of places and their names. On the other hand legends associated with some custom give reasons for the different habits, behaviors or rituals.
Sometimes researchers differentiate between folk legend of legends scientist. In the second case, transmitted orally legend has been the writer's recast it in a particular literary genre and often supplemented with various themes taken from other works.
Myth (idea, story, frightened) - the story of humanity around the world, describing the history of the gods, paranormal, demons, legendary heroes and history of the creation of the world and man. She tried to explain the perennial issues of human existence, mysticism, life and death, good and evil, and the existence of natural phenomena (eg. The season, lightning). Myths, next to the sacred books are the subject of a theological justification of religious belief.
Set of myths of a community referred to as mythology.
Today, various human communities and individuals create various stories aimed at creating and maintaining the collective consciousness and social ties.
The term myth is also referred to literary form stories transferring a given community ideas about the world and its people. Originally transmitted orally and later in writing.
In the colloquial sense, the myth is a term for a false belief about a person or event.
Features myths:
Cognitive - through myths people have tried to explain to them incomprehensible natural phenomena;
The philosophical - the myths as the basis of religious belief;
sacred - in the mythologies we find patterns of ritual ceremonies and tips on how to worship the gods;
Literary - inspiration for the creators of successive ages;
Motivation - myths to justify the human condition;
Culture-- myths reservoir topos (eg. topos of love is stronger than death - Orpheus and Eurydice) and archetypes (eg. a rebel - Prometheus), and collocations (eg. the Augean stables). Moreover, they are also a source of reinterpretation (eg., "The Myth of Sisyphus" by A. Camus).
*All these information I took from Polish Wikipedia and I translated them in English language.
How stories are told around the world
It's said there isn’t anyone you couldn’t learn to love, once you’ve heard their story. Dave Say knows that. The ability to honour every human by listening to what they have to say about themselves is central to Story Crops, the non-profit he founded in 2003.
The premise of Story Corps is simple: One person interviews another and their conversation is recorded for posterity. It’s a strikingly straightforward proposition. But then, storytelling has always been less about glitz or gadgetry and more about connection and communication. No matter the tech, humans have invariably figured out a compelling way to tell each other stories.
That’s not to say we all tell stories the same way. Far from it. As Kay Turner, a folklorist and independent scholar who’s on the board of the New York Folklore Society, notes, “Even if a story is the same, each culture will tell it differently, because each one has its own genres and cultural rules.” That’s led to a host of different traditions and practices beloved around the world. Here are just some of them.
Hula
You might not know it while on an island vacation luau, but traditional hula dancers dance not to a beat, but to language, Hawaiian-language chants or songs. Without the words, the dance loses meaning as a story. Hula shares traditional stories as well as mythology and creation tales, including those of the gods and goddesses of the islands.
Chinese Shadow Puppetry
Traditional shadow puppetry tells folk stories, issues moral lessons, and projects specific local customs. Most often seen at celebrations such as weddings or religious festivals, the puppets are silhouettes shaped from leather or paper that are manipulated on long rods by storytellers. The puppeteers either sing, often in falsetto, or are accompanied by singers and musicians. Though it originated in China during the Han dynasty, the tradition has spread to countries throughout Southeast Asia.
Zajal
The classical Arabic version of a poetry slam or rap battle, Zajal originated in Lebanon and is practiced across the Middle East and the United Arab Emirates. Competitions pit one poet or spoken-word artist against another. One poet recites a stanza (often insulting the opponent), then the other responds with a stanza using the same meter and rhyme.
Cunto
This ancient Sicilian storytelling method draws from Greek theatre and relies heavily on improvisation. It alternates between sung verse and spoken prose and is often performed on a small wooden platform. The stories can occasionally include marionettes, though are typically told with a single prop or none at all. The storytellers, known as cuntisti, traditionally tell stories of epic heroes and their struggles, though these days they also include tales of daily Sicilian life.
Rakugo
This Japanese tradition is performed in monologues by a single storyteller, called a hanashika. The storytellers are similar to comedians, and they tell tales of daily life and reinforce historical and moral lessons, though they generally avoid making direct reference to particular events or figures.
Griot
Griots, or Jelis, are the traditional keepers of a society’s history in West African cultures. Griot storytellers often play instruments such as the kora, similar to a lute, and preserve family and cultural histories in the manner of a genealogist. In some West African cultures, griots were at once singers of praise and messengers for nobility.
Bharatanatyam
Indian temple dancers, or devadasis, perform bharatanatyam, a dance that is considered a form of prayer. The dances tell the stories of specific deities, such as Krishna or Shiva, and are unique to different temples and spiritual days. While the bharatanatyam, which originated in Tamil Nadu, in South India, has been in existence for millennia, it has experienced a renaissance in the past century.
Calypso
Calypso developed in the early 20th century in Trinidad, where the lyrics, which described local life and neighbourhood dramas, were used as a tool to share news and shine a light on everything from the challenges of a banana farmer to local political corruption. As a political tool, calypso was often subject to censorship by the government. “Song is a popular form of expression in all Caribbean storytelling,” says Maxine Alexander, a Jamaican-American artist and storyteller. “Reggae and calypso deal very heavily in political injustice and social disparity, so storytellers use this musical platform to express things that couldn’t be spoken about. We’re singing about the stories around us in daily life.”
8 Classic storytelling techniques for engaging presentations
A good public speaker takes their audience on a journey, leaving them feeling inspired and motivated. But structuring your speech to get your ideas across and keep your audience engaged all the way through is tricky. Try these eight storytelling techniques for a presentation that wows.
You’re doing a presentation, so you start with the facts you want to get across. Wrong! Humans are hardwired for stories. They love heroes, journeys, surprises, layers and happy endings.
Deliver a presentation that captures the hearts and heads of your audience by stealing one of these classic storytelling techniques. Start with the story – the rest will be history.
1. Monomyth
The monomyth (also called the hero’s journey), is a story structure that is found in many folk tales, myths and religious writings from around the world.
In a monomyth, the hero is called to leave their home and sets out on a difficult journey. They move from somewhere they know into a threatening unknown place.
After overcoming a great trial, they return home with a reward or newfound wisdom – something which will help their community. Lots of modern stories still follow this structure, from the Lion King to Star Wars.
Using the monomyth to shape your presentation can help you to explain what has brought you to the wisdom you want to share. It can bring your message alive for your audience.
Good for:
· Taking the audience on a journey
· Showing the benefit of taking risks
· Demonstrating how you learned some newfound wisdom
Japanese yo-yo-er BLACK tells the inspiring story of finding his life’s passion, and the difficult path he took to become world champion. He closes by sharing his newfound skills with the audience, bringing his journey full circle.
2. The mountain
The mountain structure is a way of mapping the tension and drama in a story. It’s similar to the monomyth because it helps us to plot when certain events occur in a story.
It’s different because it doesn’t necessarily have a happy ending. The first part of the story is given to setting the scene, and is followed by just a series of small challenges and rising action before a climactic conclusion.
It’s a bit like a TV series – each episode has its ups and downs, all building up to a big finale at the end of the season.
Good for:
· Showing how you overcame a series of challenges
· Slowly building tension
· Delivering a satisfying conclusion
Aimee Mullins uses a mountain-structure speech to tell a personal story – from being born without fibula bones in her lower legs to becoming a famous athlete, actress and model.
3. Nested loops
Nested loops is a storytelling technique where you layer three or more narratives within each other.
You place your most important story – the core of your message – in the centre, and use the stories around it to elaborate or explain that central principle. The first story you begin is the last story you finish, the second story you start is second to last, etc.
Nested loops works a bit like a friend telling you about a wise person in their life, someone who taught them an important lesson. The first loops are your friend’s story, the second loops are the wise person’s story. At the centre is the important lesson.
Good for:
· Explaining the process of how you were inspired/ came to a conclusion
· Using analogies to explain a central concept
· Showing how a piece of wisdom was passed along to you
See also: Simon Sinek’s TED talk shows how successful organizations place the ‘why?’ of what they do at the centre, surrounded by the ‘what?’ and ‘how?’ of their business. Nested loops are an ideal way of framing this message, giving your audience a real insight into your identity.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie uses the framework of her experiences in university and the way that Africa is perceived in the Western world to drive home her argument about stories.
4. Sparklines
Sparklines are a way of mapping presentation structures. Graphic designer Nancy Duarte uses sparklines to analyse famous speeches graphically in her book Resonate.
She argues that the very best speeches succeed because they contrast our ordinary world with an ideal, improved world. They compare what is with what could be.
By doing this the presenter draws attention to the problems we have in our society, our personal lives, our businesses. The presenter creates and fuels a desire for change in the audience.
It’s a highly emotional technique that is sure to motivate your audience to support you.
Good for:
· Inspiring the audience to action
· Creating hope and excitement
· Creating a following
Martin Luther King’s speech is famous the world over because it contrasts the racist, intolerant society of the day with an ideal future society where all races are treated equally.
5. In medias res
In medias res storytelling is when you begin your narrative in the heat of the action, before starting over at the beginning to explain how you got there.
By dropping your audience right into the most exciting part of your story they’ll be gripped from the beginning and will stay engaged to find out what happens.
But be careful – you don’t want to give away too much of the action straight away. Try hinting at something bizarre or unexpected – something that needs more explanation. Give your audience just enough information to keep them hooked, as you go back and set the scene of your story.
This only works for shorter presentations though – if you string it out too long your audience will get frustrated and lose interest.
Good for:
· Grabbing attention from the start
· Keep an audience craving resolution
· Focusing attention on a pivotal moment in your story
Zak Ebrahim begins his talk with the revelation that his father helped plan the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing. His audience is gripped from the beginning, as he begins to recount the events of his childhood and the path he took after his father’s conviction.
6. Converging ideas
Converging ideas is a speech structure that shows the audience how different strands of thinking came together to form one product or idea.
It can be used to show the birth of a movement. Or explain how a single idea was the culmination of several great minds working towards one goal.
Converging ideas is similar to the nested loops structure, but rather than framing one story with complementary stories, it can show how several equally important stories came to a single strong conclusion.
This technique could be used to tell the stories of some of the world’s greatest partnerships – for example, web developers Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
Larry and Sergey met at Stanford’s PhD program in 1995, but they didn’t like each other at first. They both had great ideas, but found working together hard. Eventually they found themselves working on a research project together. A research project that became Google.
Good for:
· Showing how great minds came together
· Demonstrating how a development occurred at a certain point in history
· Showing how symbiotic relationships have formed
John Bohannon and the Black Label Movement explain (verbally and through dance) how scientists and dancers came together to form an exciting, dynamic alternative to boring presentations.
7. False start
A ‘false start’ story is when you begin to tell a seemingly predictable story, before unexpectedly disrupting it and beginning it over again. You lure your audience into a false sense of security, and then shock them by turning the tab
This format is great for talking about a time that you failed in something and were forced to ‘go back to the start’ and reassess. It’s ideal for talking about the things that you learnt from that experience. Or the innovative way that you solved your problem.
But best of all, it’s a quick attention hack which will disrupt your audience’s expectations and surprise them into paying closer attention to your message.
Good for:
· Disrupting audience expectations
· Showing the benefits of a flexible approach
· Keeping the audience engaged
See also: Retroactive continuity is when a storyteller goes back and alters the ‘facts’ in their story. If you are a character in the story you’re telling, you can use a false start to go back and retell your own story in a surprising way
J K Rowling begins her speech at Harvard in a typical fashion. She talks about her time at university and the expectations of her parents. The audience expects her to talk about the growing success of her writing career – instead she focuses on a time in her twenties where she felt she had ‘failed’ in life. What comes next is inspirational
8. Petal Structure
The petal structure is a way of organising multiple speakers or stories around one central concept. It’s useful if you have several unconnected stories you want to tell or things you want to reveal – that all relate back to a single message.
You tell your stories one by one before returning back to the centre. The petals can overlap as one story introduces the next but each should be a complete narrative in itself.
In doing so, you can weave a rich tapestry of evidence around your central theory. Or strong emotional impressions around your idea.
By showing your audience how all these key stories are related to one another, you leave them feeling the true importance and weight of your message.
Good for:
· Demonstrating how strands of a story or process are interconnected
· Showing how several scenarios relate back to one idea
· Letting multiple speakers talk around a central theme
Simon Sinek again! His theory might lend itself perfectly to nested loops, but he himself chose to deliver his talk in a petal structure. He tells his audience a series a stories to help illustrate his ideas, each one strengthening his message further.
Start with a story
So there you have it – 8 classic storytelling shapes to brighten up your talk and really engage your audience.
Of course there are many other storytelling techniques out there that you can use. What I hope this post has done is show you that stories are powerful. They are the language of your audience.
Your talk – however dry the subject – can be brought alive if you find the story at the heart of it all.
These all information I took from : www.sparkol.com
*Here is description of my myth which I will performing on Thursday -Orpheus and Eurydice
Task 2: Detailed individual Research
Orpheus was a beautiful and young king of Thrace. When he played the lute and harp, everything around him accompanied: trees, birds, animals. His wife was equally comely Eurydice - Hamadriada wood nymph. The characters really loved each other and were happy.
Unfortunately, their idyll did not last long. Beauty Eurydice had tremendous power. Whoever he saw her falling in love with it right away. When the son of Apollo and the nymph Cyrene - (a doctor, beekeeper and owner of vineyards ) Aristaeus saw her in the valley Tempe, he shared the fate of her admirers. Not knowing that the wife of Orpheus, Eurydice, he began chasing her. He was relentless to the point that frightened nymph ran, not looking at the feet. In such circumstances she stood on a snake and soon died from the bite.
After the death of Orpheus wife he stopped playing and singing. He just walked and shouted the name of Eurydice, having only listener echo. One day he took a lute and went to the netherworld ruled by Hades. There listened to his music . Charon has carried it for free on the other side of the Styx, the sounds of the instrument also resulted in the focus of Cerberus, who stopped barking.
When Orpheus stood before the ruler of the underground, he never stopped playing. Arranged in a pitiful song sounds made even cruel goddesses Furies - "three ugly sisters. The epitome of fierce and unyielding remorse "- Orpheus cried and Hades gave him Eurydice. For safe to leave Hades were unseen to his beloved wife, who was walking behind Orpheus. Heroes went long, they were almost at the top when Orpheus could not stand it and turned away.
Then the followers of Hermes took them back Eurydice to the underworld and Orpheus went out into the world alone. Looking around at last realized what had happened. While the pounding again underground, he was not allowed again. He returned to Thrace, where in the valleys and mountains sing his songs filled with regret.
One night "raging mad procession and Maenad tore his body into pieces". When detached from the trunk, head drifted to the sea, kept saying the name of Eurydice. She was buried on the island of Lesbos, because only there ceased to drift. At the site of her burial it was founded oracle, and torn flesh Orpheus - Gather up by Muse - rested at the foot of Mount Olympus.
*These information I took from Polish website:
www.sciaga.pl
Task 1 : Outline
1. Magical Orpheus musical skills - the king of Thrace.
2. Extreme beauty Eurydice, wood nymphs.
3. Aristaeus attraction of Eurydice.
4. Escape wife of Orpheus, which ended with the death of nymphs.
5. Desperate singer from Thrace.
6 Expedition to Hades.
7. Putting the wife of Orpheus by Hades.
8. Condition of Hades about how to leave the world of the dead.
9. Seeing the up singer for themselves.
10. Re-loss of Eurydice.
11. Euridice stopped in Hades.
11. Burst Orpheus by Maenad Dionysus.
12. Love stronger than death.
13. Bury head of the singer on Lesbos.
14. Creation of an oracle on the grave of Orpheus.
15. Collect and bury the remains of Orpheus at Olympus.
My comments:
I found this assignment very good , even If I had to research a lot to find all these information to put them all together to create something. It was good exercise to develop my knowledge about legends, myths and different storytelling techniques. Also it was good practise with planning ours projections and once be a director of your own performance and create the world as you want it to be.
