Narrative As Social Practice: Anglo-western and Australian Aboriginal Oral Traditions (Language, Power, and Social Process, 13)

Narrative as Social Practice sets out to explore the complex and fascinating interrelatedness of narrative and culture. It does so by contrasting the oral storytelling traditions of two widely divergent cultures? Anglo-Western culture and the Central Australian culture of the Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara Aborigines. Combining discourse-analytical and pragmalinguistic methodologies with the perspectives of ethnopoetics and the ethnography of communication, this book presents a highly original and engaging study of storytelling as a vital communicative activity at the heart of socio-cultural life. The book is concerned with both theoretical and empirical issues. It engages critically with the theoretical framework of social constructivism and the notion of social practice, and it offers critical discussions of the most influential theories of narrative put forward in Western thinking. Arguing for the adoption of a communication-oriented and cross-cultural perspective as a prerequisite for improving our understanding of the cultural variability of narrative practice, Klapproth presents detailed textual analyses of Anglo-Western and Australian Aboriginal oral narratives, and contextualizes them with respect to the different storytelling practices, values and worldviews in both cultures. Narrative as Social Practice offers new insights to students and specialists in the fields of narratology, discourse analysis, cross-cultural pragmatics, anthropology, folklore study, the ethnography of communication, and Australian Aboriginal studies. Ch. 1. Introduction -- Pt. 1. In The Web Of The Wor(l)d : The Narrative Structuring Of Experience -- Ch. 2. Creating Webs Of Significance : The Role Of Narrative In The Socio-cultural Construction Of Reality -- Ch. 3. The Narrative Sharing Of Worlds : Storytelling As Communicative Interaction -- Ch. 4. Exploring The Structure Of Narrated Worlds : The Search For Story Schemata -- Pt. 2. Storytelling As Social Practice : A Cross-cultural Perspective -- Ch. 5. The Beautiful And The Beastly : Cultural Specifics Of Anglo-western Narrative Aesthetics -- Ch. 6. Always Keeping Track : Text Building Strategies In Pitjantjatjara And Yankunytjatjara Storytelling -- Ch. 7. Holding The World In Place : The Interrelatedness Of Story, Practice, And Culture -- Ch. 8. Conclusions And Implications. By Danièle M. Klapproth. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [423]-450) And Index. Explores and discusses narrative as social practice in the Anglo-Western tradition and the Australian Aboriginal Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara tradition; aims and methodological approach; focusses on 62 traditional Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara narratives constituting a 'folk genre', and on 13 of the most popular classic European fairy tales; Part One examines the narrative structuring of experience; Part Two examines storytelling as social practice; concluding chapter summarises findings and disucsses the three main points of divergence in narrative practice and the shared aspects in narrative practice Review text: "This book is a useful reference for those who are interested in the theoretical and methodological issues in contrastive study of narrative, and particulary for those who carry out research into the linguistic and cultural pratices of Australian Aborigines."Judy Woon Yee Ho in: Discourse & Society 2/2006