The Power of Story:
Pattern, Language, & A Poetics of Place
Program Reader: Winter 2008
The Evergreen State College
A Greek Storyteller/Poet Pours Wine to the Muse, Erato.
Storytellers/ poets are the Muse’s instrument,
as she inspires them to move human hearts.
LIBRARY COPY
Compiled by: Rebecca Chamberlain
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“The Power of Story: Pattern, Language, & a Poetics of Place” Program Reader
Compiled by: Rebecca Chamberlain
The Power of Story Reader contains a broad spectrum of readings that will be required throughout
the quarter. These materials will supplement our primary texts. It includes copies of traditional stories and
topics including: history; culture; language; folklore; myth; performance; psychology; nature; biography;
interview techniques: education; science; politics; healing and transformation and other topics. Some of
these materials are not easily accessible and hard to locate, so it is a valuable resource for any personal
library. If you were to purchase the books containing these articles, you would be spending hundreds of
dollars, so it’s a way of having access to a large body of literature, without making a huge investment.
If you want a copy of the “Reader”, you must order it the first night of class. Based on these
orders, the bookstore will make copies and pay copyright fees for each copy of the reader. The entire cost
goes towards paying royalties on copyrighted material and Xeroxing. If you order the reader after the first
night of class, royalty fees go up, because you are not part of a group rate.
I will put a copy of the reader, on reserve in the library, if you choose to use it there. However, it
is strongly suggested that you order your own copy for your personal library and for convenience.
I will also put copies of books, from my personal library, on reserve in the library, if anyone has
special interests. If you like any of the other texts, you can purchase them or order them through interlibrary loan.
We will be referring to selections from the reader in seminars and workshops, so please bring your
reader to class.
*NOTE: Articles that were not approved for reproduction, or that we decided not to use due to
cost, were removed from the student copies of the reader. They are in the copy of the reader that is on
reserve in the library. These articles still appear in the table of contents, and are marked with an asterix*.
In order to read them, you will have to access them in the reader in the library.
Abrahm, David. “Landscape and Language.” The Spell of the Sensuous. New York: Vintage, 1996. 137179. (ISBN: 0-679-77639-7)
Benjamin, Walter. “The Storyteller: Reflections on the works of Nikolai Leskov.” Orientund Okeident
(1936). Reprint in Illuminations, No. 83-109. (Schocken 1968).
Online. grace.evergreen.edu/~arunc/texts/frankfurt/storyteller.pdf (4 Jan. 06).
Chamberlain, Rebecca. The Power of Story: Words on the Wing. Liberating Voices! A Pattern Language
for Communication Revolution. Ed. Doug Schuler. Boston: MIT Press, (Currently in publication.)
Online: http://diac.cpsr.org/cgi-bin/diac02/pattern.cgi/public?pattern_id=493 (4 Jan. 2007)
___________________. “The Earth Is our First Teacher: Discovering Language and Place.” The Earth Is
Our First Teacher. Ed. Vi Hilbert, Carmen Shone, Jill LaPoint. WA: Lushootseed Press.(Currently
in publication.)  2006 by Rebecca Chamberlain
__________________. “The Uses of Storytelling in a Liberal Arts Curriculum.” 2004 National Storytelling
Conference, SHE-SIG Sponsored Research Symposium Adjudicated Papers. Abstract.
Ganz, Marshall. “The Power of Story in Social Movements,” Prepared for the Annual Meeting of the
American Sociological Association, Anaheim, CA: August 2001. Kennedy School of
Government, Harvard U.
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http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/organizing/tools/Files/MG%20POWER%20OF%20STORY.pdf (125-06)
*King, Thomas. “You’ll Never Believe What Happened” is Always a Great Way to Start.” The Truth About
Stories. Minneapolis: U. of Minnesota Press, 2003. 1-30. (Available in the bookstore, and on
reserve in the library.)
Korten, David. “The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, ‘Story Power’” Yes! Summer 2006
Issue: 5000 Years of Empire. Online: http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1463 (5 Dec.
06)
Momady, N. Scott “ Introduction.” The Way to Rainy Mountain. U. of New Mexico Press, 1969. 1-4.
Maguire, Jack. “Stories and Storytelling.” Creative Storytelling: Choosing, Inventing, and Sharing Tales
for Children. Cambridge, MA: Yellow Moon Press, 1985. 27-44 (Text also available in bookstore.)
___________. “Types of Stories.” 49-70. (ISBN: 0-938756-35-4)
Mellon, Nancy. “Introduction,” “Beginning & Ending,” “Movement and a Sense of Direction,”
“Storyscapes.” The Art of Storytelling. Rockport, MA: Element Books, 1992. 1-66. (Text also
available in bookstore.)
*National Storytelling Association. “Recommended Books for Storytellers.” Tales as Tools: The Power of
Story in the Classroom. Jonesborough, TN: National Storytelling Press, 1994. 196-205. (ISBN: 1879991-15-2) (On reserve in the library.)
Ong, Walter. “Some Psychodynamics of Orality.” Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word.
Methuen, New York, 1982. 31-77. (ISBN: 0-416-71380-7)
Ortiz, Simon. “Always the Stories.” Coyote Was Here. The Dolphin No. 9, April 1984: 57-69. (Denmark,
University of Denmark, Seklos Press) (ISSN: 01060-4487)
Sawyer, Ruth. “A Technique to Abolish Technique.” The Way of the Storyteller. New York: Penguin
Books, 1990. 131-148. (ISBN: 0-14-004436-1)
*Simms, Laura. “Natural Interuptions.” Parabola Spring 1999: 98-101. (On reserve in the library.)
Snyder, Gary. “The Politics of Ethnopoetics.” A Place In Space. Washington D. C.: Counterpoint, 1995.
126-147. (ISBN: 1-887178-27-9)
*Solnit, Rebecca, “Other Ways of Telling.” Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities. New
York; Nation Books, 2004. 7-12. (ISBN: 1-56025-557-3) (On reserve in the library.)
Steinman, Louise. “The Storyteller, “ The Knowing Body: The Artist as Storyteller in Contemporary
Performance. Berkley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 1986. 103-134.
Swimme, Brian, & Berry, Thomas. “Prologue: The Story.” The Universe Story: From the Primordial
Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era—A Celebration of the Unfolding of the Cosmos. San Francisco:
Harper, 1992. 7-29. (ISBN: 0062508350)
Williams, Terry Tempest. “The Village Watchman from: An Unspoken Hunger.” The Stories that Shape
us: Contemporary Women Write About the West. Ed. Teresa Jordan, and James Hepworth. New
York: Norton, 1995. 384-393. (ISBN:0-393-31451-0)
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Zipes, Jack. “Revisiting Benjamin’s “The Storyteller:” Revisiting the Past to Move Forward.” Happily Ever
After: Fairy Tales, Children, and the Culture Industry. New York: Routledge, 1997. 129-142.
(ISBN: 0-415-91851) (Text is also available in the bookstore.)
Myths & Oral Narratives
Bullfinch, Thomas. “Erisichthon.” Myths of Greece and Rome. New York; Viking Penguin, 1979. 260268.
Hilbert,Vi (taRSebeblu). “Introduction.” XeZusede? ?e GeRelCe?: Aunt Susie Sampson Peter. Seattle:
Lushootseed Press, 1995. viii-x.
___________________. “Biography.” xi-xii.
___________________. “Star Child and the Lushootseed Animal People: From Myth to History.” 127-139.
Sampson, Chief Martin. “Star Child.” Indians of Skagit County. Mount Vernon, WA: Skagit County
Historical Society, 1972. 51-54.
For further reverence:
If you are interested in additional texts, I have a detailed storytelling bibliography available.
I have can put some of the following articles on reserve in the library if anyone is interested.
Bettelheim, Bruno. “Introduction,” “Life Divined from Inside,” “Fairy Tale Versus Myth,” “The Three
Little Pigs: the Pleasure Principle Versus the Reality Principle,” “The Child’s Need for Magic.” The
Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. New York: Knopf, 1976. 4-52.
An interesting look at early psycho-analytic thought, Freudian analysis, pediatric psychology,
children’s literature, and the serious study of folktales.
Cassirer, Ernst. “The Place of Language and Myth in the Pattern of Human Culture.” Language and Myth.
New York: Dover, 1946. 1-17.
A thoughtful, philosophical discussion of pattern, language, and myth.
Cambell, Joseph, “Prologue: The Monomyth.” Hero With A Thousand Faces. New Jersey: Princeton U.
Press, 1968. 4-40. (0-692-02784-0)
This classic work, exploring the archetypes of the hero motif, is a “must read” for any serious
student of literature, myth, psychology, and religion.
Darnton, Robert. “Peasants Tell Tales: The Meaning Of Mother Goose.” The Great Cat Massacre and
Other Episodes in French Cultural History. New York: Basic Books,1984. 9-72.
This is a brilliant social critique of European history and the power of stories to shape thinking. It
is written with a Marxist perspective, and explores the power of stories to engage the imagination
in its struggle against abuse and oppression. It is also a strong critique of the psycho-analytic
literature, such as Bettelheim.
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Ganz, Marshall. “Interpretation I: Motivation, Narrative, Celebration.” Organizing Notes, Kennedy School
2000. Online. http://comm-org.wisc.edu/syllabi/ganz/notes6.htm (12-5-06).
If you like Ganz, check this article out on-line.
Heisig, James W. “Bruno Bettelheim and the Fairy Tales.”
A brilliant, balanced analysis that both exposes and critiques Bettelheim’s Freudian theories of
archetypal patterns in fairytales, as well as taking ideas of archetype and meaning to a whole new
level. A “must read.”
*Hogan, Linda, “Creations.” Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World. New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1995. 77-98. (ISBN: 0-684-83033-7)
This is a must-read, for anyone interested in how stories define a sense of place. Hogan is a
brilliant writer.
Krippner, Stanley, Ann Mortifee, and David Feinstien. “New Myths for the New Millennium.” The
Futurist, March 199. 30-34.
A provocative look at how stories shape our thinking, and what we can do to re-imagine our
world. A look at social role of storytelling in the same vein as Korten and Ganz.
Sobel, Joseph Daniel. “The Archetype of the Storyteller.” The Storytellers’ Journey: An American Revival.
Chicago: U. of Illinois Press, 1999. 27-63. (ISBN: 0-252-06746-0)
_______________. “Introduction.” 1-26.
_______________.“The Storytelling Festival as Ritual.” 118-152.
This book is a “must-read” if you want a thorough exploration of the role of the American
storyteller, at a grass-roots level. Please look at “The Archetype of the Storyteller.”
National Lampoon Cartoon. “Myth and Legend Mirror.”
This satire is what the National Equierer would do with Greek myth and legend, if it had a change.
It exposes and parallels Greek mythology, with modern life in the West.
*Von Franz, Marie Louise. “Theories of Fairy Tales,” “Fairy Tales, Myths, and other Archetypal Stories.”
Interpretation of Fairytales. Irving, TX: Spring Publications, 1978. 1-16. (ISBN: 0-88214-100-7)
____________________. “Fairy Tales, Myths, and other Archetypal Stories.” 17-25.
This is a brilliant introduction to Carl Jung’s ideas of patterns, archetypes, and symbolic meanings
for growth and psychological development through the medium of fairy-tales. It is a “must read” for
any serious student of psychology, folklore, myth, and literature. Please look at it.
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