What is the essence of story? How does the storyteller convey meaning? Leading scholar Harold Scheub tackles these questions and more, demonstrating that the power of story lies in emotion.
While others have focused on the importance of structure in the art of story, Scheub emphasizes emotion. He shows how an expert storyteller uses structural elements—image, rhythm, and narrative—to shape a story's fundamental emotional content. The storyteller uses traditional images, repetition, and linear narrative to move the audience past the story’s surface of morals and ideas, and make connections to their past, present, and future. To guide the audience on this emotional journey is the storyteller’s art.
The traditional stories from South African, Xhosa, and San cultures included in the book lend persuasive support to Scheub’s. These stories speak for themselves, demonstrating that a skilled performer can stir emotions despite the obstacles of space, time, and culture.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Scheub (African languages and literature, Univ. of Wisconsin), the author of several books on African oral traditions, including The Tongue Is Fire (Univ. of Wisconsin, 1996), here provides a scholarly discussion on what gives power to story. Using 25 traditional tales from southern Africa, Scheub cogently argues for the importance of story in our past and present. He demonstrates that structural elements such as image, narrative, rhythm, and trope are used to shape meaning, which "is essentially constructed of feeling." Scheub repeatedly invokes the importance of emotion, believing it to be "the essential component in story." He maintains that everyone can generally agree on the surface meaning and the moral of a story; what gives real meaning is individual interpretation, stirred by the emotion that each of us brings to the story. Scheub presents a compelling, complex argument, best suited for academics.?Louis J. Parascandola, Long Island Univ., Brooklyn, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
“Story is as sound and original a piece of scholarship as we have been waiting for in the study of oral narrative performance. . . .written by one of the best scholars who have anything to say on the subject of storytelling.”—Isidore Okpewho, author of African Oral Literature
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Still Waiting,
This review is from: Story (Paperback)
This is not a review of the book that I purchased because I still have not received it. I odered it on January 7, 2009 and it is now February 8, 2009. I have already written several e-mails to amazon and "messenger books" and I have not gotten any replies. My book is still not here and I am very upset with how unprofessional this whole experience has been. I am beyond the point of wanting the book, I just want my money back. Please contact me and let me know what is going on.
Thank you, Ann White
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Original & powerful analysis,
By
This review is from: Story (Paperback)
From one of the world's great story-hunters and story-tellers comes this insightful look into the deepest mechanics and meanings of story. No one is better suited than Scheub to guide us on this journey, and he describes the strange and often unexpected landscape of the story directly and clearly. The book is especially useful for playwrights and scriptwriters seeking to craft universally compelling tales.
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