The Storytellers' Journey: AN AMERICAN REVIVAL [Paperback]

Joseph Sobol (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1999

This is the seed of "The Storytellers' Journey", Joseph Daniel Sobol's history of the past thirty years of American storytelling. In this compelling examination of the contemporary search for myth, Sobol explores the social and psychological roots of the storytelling revival and the ever-resurgent power of the storyteller. Drawing on interviews with dozens of storytellers around the country, Sobol paints the revival as part of a larger process of cultural revitalization. He traces the growth of the preeminent revival organization, the National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling (NAPPS), and details the individual passions, the organizational politics, and the economic, social, and mythic forces that have combined to transform a ragtag assemblage of enthusiasts into a national and international network of arts professionals. A seemingly chance encounter between a restlessly ambitious high school teacher and a coonhunting tale on the car radio sets off a chain of inspirations that changes the face of a small southern town, touches lives across America, and revitalizes a homely but treasured art form.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The first storytelling festival in this country took place in Jonesborough, TN, in 1973, establishing it as the "capital of the storytelling world." Sobol presents a detailed, scholarly yet readable examination of the movement-from the vision and drive of Jimmy Neil Smith and a handful of fledgling tellers to the present. Dozens of interviews with storytellers give an intimate look at the personalities and issues-cohesive and/or divisive-that challenge the growing and changing National Storytelling Association. Students of culture, folklore, anthropology, and mythology will find an in-depth study of this aspect of American folk culture and performing arts. A useful addition to public library collections, and a must for storytellers.
Judy Sokoll, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Refreshingly candid and honest without being judgmental." - Adventures in Storytelling Magazine "Sobol focuses on the history of the storytelling revival in the U.S., particularly of the National Storytelling Association (aka NAPPS) from its earliest hay wagon festival days in Jonesborough TN to its apogee in the early 1990's. He analyzes the social and political forces of the 70's which made people crave traditional roots and spiritual rebirth, comparing it to earlier folk revival periods. Such scholarly stuff can't be boring when Sobol's sharp insights and vivid words keep us snapped to attention." - Fran Stallings, Territorial Tattler "A fascinating view into the revitalized storytelling world... These interviews, interspersed with snippets of the stories characteristic of the tellers, provide arich insight into the individuals working to keep contemporary storytelling alive."- Choice "The texture and rhetoric of his ethnography are richly descriptive and unabashedly mythic, enriched with passionate personal reminiscence and lifted by leaps of critical imagination and delight in the power of stories, their tellers, and the intense shared moments of festival storytelling as performance art... This striking mix of spiritual autobiography and historical account is carefully researched and so thorough and thoughtful in its development that it stands as the definitive analysis of the storytelling revival and its place in American popular culture." - Thomas McGowan, Appalachian Journal "Sobol presents a detailed, scholarly yet readable examination of the movement -from the vision and drive of Jimmy Neil Smith and a handful of fledgling tellers to the present. Dozens of interviews with storytellers give an intimate look at the personalities and issues-cohesive and/or divisive - that challenge the growing and changing National Storytelling Association. Students of culture, folklore, anthropology, and mythology will find an in-depth study of this aspect of American folk culture and performing arts." - Judy Sokoll, School Library Journal "The rise of the National Storytelling Festival ... and of the first national association of storytellers ... make for a thoughtful yarn on how folkways are preserved and transformed in order to be retailed on modern stages." - thefolknik ADVANCE PRAISE "Sobol is our storytelling anthropologist. His book is original, insightful, and leavened with humor and compassion. "Sobol's writing is as imaginative as the subject itself, but solidly informative as well. This is an important resource for scholars in storytelling, folklore, popular culture, and social history."-Betsy Hearne, author of Beauty and the Beast: Visions and Revisions of an Old Tale The brilliance of The Storytellers' Journey is that it offers at once a deep exploration of the territory we've traveled and a glimpse of future possibilities."- Carol Birch and Melissa Heckler, editors of Who Says? Essays on Pivotal Issues in Contemporary Storytelling

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252067460
• ISBN-13: 978-0252067464
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,703,057 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An interesting and balanced history of the national fesitval, August 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Storytellers' Journey: An American Revival (Hardcover)

In his book, Joseph Daniel Sobol chronicles the revival of storytelling as a widely practiced American folk art and its emergence as a formidable commercial enterprise over the past three decades. He tells the story largely through the history of the National Storytelling Festival, held annually in Jonesborough, Tennesse since 1973. Mr. Sobol attempts to offer both an enthusiastic account of the storytelling revival and the Jonesborough festival and a scholarly analysis of the revival and festival as social phenomena. This dual approach is on the whole successful, as Sobol manages to be simultaneously inspiring and detached.

Those looking for a good story will be especially pleased by the early sections of Sobols book. Here, he lets a number of storytellers tell how they became involved with the revival. Sobol tells of his own early exposure to a storyteller named Brother Blue at Fishermans Wharf in San Francisco. We meet those who found storytelling to be the ideal means of expressing themselves spiritually and artistically after frustration with conventional artistic forms. These accounts--nearly uniformly presented as life-changing experiences--continue throughout the book but become sparser as Sobols focus shifts to the evolution, successes and tribulations of the Jonesborough festival. As far as academic prose goes, Sobols is quite lively, and his social scientific analysis of the storytelling phenomenon is strong and balanced. But the first-person accounts that he includes are so compelling that one longs for a book-length oral history to serve as a companion to this one.

Sobol does not shy from dealing with the more trying episodes in the history of the National Storytelling Festival. For the most part, these sprang from the its growth from a small, regional event into a large, profitable, and truly national one. Whereas at the beginning, anyone who showed up and told a story could be considered a storyteller, by the mid-eighties, distinctions were made between national and regional performers. Along the way, questions arose regarding personal and cultural proprietorship of stories; while individual storytellers were frustrated that their stories were being told by others without permission, cultural groups--Native Americans in particular--were concerned that white storytellers were profiting by telling their stories. A series of conferences in the mid-eighties grappled with these issues. In 1987, the first National Storytelling Congress, held in St. Louis, initiated a discussion of personal ownership of stories. While it did not adopt any formal code of its own, it inspired other, regional, groups to do so for their members. The following year, in Santa Fe, the congress heard grievances from Native Americans and other groups who felt that their storytelling traditions had been violated by white storytellers who told stories from them. As in St. Louis, no formal codes were adopted at Santa Fe regarding cultural proprietorship of stories. Many storytellers did, however, take the experience as a cue to tell stories drawn from their own experience.

-Daniel Weiss for PlanetAUTHORity.com

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interviews play an important part in this book!, August 24, 1999

By 

Marjorie J. Dundas (Rutland, VT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Storytellers' Journey: AN AMERICAN REVIVAL (Paperback)

This book is a studyof the impact that the National Storytelling Association (formerly known as NAPPS) and the Jonesborough, Tennessee, National Storytelling Festival have had on storytelling in the U.S.A.

This book is partially scholarly speculation and partially informally-formal (and interesting) interviews with well-known national storytellers. Here is a study of what has been known as NAPPS (National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling, which then became NSA (National Storytelling Association) and is now, since the book was publishes, NSN (National Storytelling Network). A reader gets the history of the organization as well as compelling discussions of it by people who have been connected for years with the fall festival at Jonesborough, Tennessee.

In one chapter, Sobol discusses other festivals throughout the country which have been modeled after the original at Jonesborough. This chapter shows the power of the original group as well as its far-reaching influence.

Perhaps the least interesting thing about the book is a jargon-laden introduction and beginning of the first chapter. Once Sobol gets into his interviews with storytellers, the reader's interest picks up.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating background on contemporary storytelling movement, March 17, 1999

By 

Margaret Read MacDonald ([e-mail]) (Seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Storytellers' Journey: An American Revival (Hardcover)

Joseph Sobol interviewed founders of the National Storytelling Association and several of the revival storytellers' key members to provide us with this excellent history of the movement. Interesting and enlightening reading for all contemporary storytellers and for fans of Jonesborough, Tennesee's National Storytelling Festival.