LLEA Lingua Inglese 2 Spoken narrative analysis CONVERSATIONAL NARRATIVE Lecture 1A+B

veni, vidi, vici Is this a story ? Is it a narrative What makes a story a story? What makes a narrative a narrative?

Narrative v story Narrative is systematic in many forms of communication (books, plays, films) Narrative refers to the basic elements of a story but does not constitute the story A story needs to have a point (tellability) and a context and this is what we need to analyse

Conversation and narrative Conversation is the natural home of narrative, and the most familiar context of storytelling Conversational storytelling illustrates all the important features of narrative Narrative is a standard, familiar part of conversation We all tell stories: to make a point to catch up on each others’ lives to report news to entertain each other

The structure of stories (1B) Propp (fairy stories) Structuralists (Todorov, Barthes) Bruner (narrative thought) Labov (conversational stories)

Tellability/reportability (2A) Storytelling depends on the listener Keeping the audience interested but keeping the story credible Interaction - how stories get told; the actual telling of the story is important

Classifying narrative types Time Content Setting Genre INTERACTION past, present, future “ghost” stories medical, legal etc. report, confession TREATING A STORY AS SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

Who tells the story (3A) The role of the speaker The role of the listener Who constructs the story? How is it constructed? Question and answer?

How stories get started and ended (3B) Openings - does the teller offer to tell a story? How Closings - who brings the story to an end? How

Turn-taking (4A) How do speakers and listeners interact? Short turns? Long turns? Interruptions? Questions and answers? Level of social affiliation between speakers

Types of narrator - 4B Roles Identities

Story function (5A) How does the story fit into the discourse? Is it a retelling? Is it part of a set of stories? Is it contested? Why is it being told?

Story themes (5B) personal anecdote dramatic events trouble embarrassment nostalgia and reminiscence fantasy

Interactional approach to storytelling stories are social events stories are a form of social behaviour stories maintain social relationships so… WE ARE INTERESTED IN HOW THEY ARE CONSTRUCTED NOT WHAT THEY ARE ABOUT

Not the “what?” but the “how?” When we analyse a story we are not so much interested in WHAT happened but in HOW it is constructed and how the speaker makes it interesting and credible for the listener at the same time (how the tellability is foregrounded)