Anth 095: Storytelling across Cultures
Class discussion assignment
Part 1: Discuss the story that you wrote your assignment on.
a. Compare the differences that you found between the written text and the audio file.
Did you all find the same difference? Why do you think the person who wrote down
the story might have added or subtracted something from the story text? Which
version leaves more of an impression?
b. What parts of the story, or story structures did you each identify? What were some
similarities and differences between the analyses of members of the group?
c. Compare the narrative dimensions (Tellership; tellability of the story; embeddedness;
linearity; moral stance) that you chose to analyze for your story. Did you choose the
same ones, and were your analyses similar or different?
d. Can you identify some ways that the storyteller in your group’s excerpt related
individual experience to broader ideas, narratives, or experiences?
Part 2: Discuss the excerpt from the Johnstone chapter assigned to your group (attached).
a. What parts of the story does Johnstone identify, and how does she name them? Do
you agree with her “chunking of the narrative?
b. How does the storyteller launch this story? What does the way the story is launched
communicate to the listener/reader?
c. How does the storyteller conclude the story?
d. For each of Ochs and Capps’ narrative dimensions, indicate how you would label or
describe this narrative:
i. tellership
ii. tellability
iii. embeddedness
iv. linearity
v. moral stance