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

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

3. 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

4. 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

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

6. 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

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

8. 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?

9. 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

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

11. Types of narrator - 4B
Roles
Identities

12. 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?

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

14. 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

15. 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)