ABSTRACT
The listening to, and telling of stories occupies a significant percentage of human day-to-day activity. A broad understanding of the terms “listening” and “telling” might allow for the claim that the majority of human exchange presents itself in story form—the lecture in a classroom, the explanation offered to a traffic officer, the patient’s description of where it hurts and why, the reflexive rendition of the events of one’s day. Human communication often follows the identifiable characteristics of story: purposiveness, character identification and development, unity, and causality among others, so that it appears to be natural to the way in which we think and speak. In some definitions, such as the one put forward by philosopher Mary Devereaux, narrative is “little more than a fancy word for story” (2004: 3). In others, narrative points to the basic structure below the storytelling performance, which serves different acts of oral and written expression, whereas storytelling implies the vital performance in the moment. This more elaborated understanding includes, therefore, the techniques and structural tools used by creators of narrative to produce particular effects to be experienced by audiences.
