ABSTRACT
In Chapter 2, I reviewed studies concerning storytelling in conversation and suggested that the performance of oral traditional epics is a type of institutional storytelling. In conversation, storytelling occurs within the broader context of the conversation in which it is embedded, as is demonstrated in the full standard storytelling sequence-that is, the story preface sequence, the storytelling sequence, and the response sequence. In the story preface sequence, someone initiates the storytelling sequence by asserting that the story is somehow relevant to the topic in the preceding turns in the conversation. In the response sequence, the participants then interpret the story within the broader conversational context.
