ABSTRACT
In order to grasp the originality of the new vogue of storytelling in present-day France, it is worth considering more generally the social uses of the oral arts—among them tales—in traditional societies. In traditional societies, the meaning of oral narrative productions resides both in the texts themselves and in the dynamics of the relationships that connect them to their social framework; that is, to the immediate circumstances of their performance (the discursive context) on the one hand and to the cultural system at large on the other hand. Thus, traditional storytellers ignore the problems of tale repertory, since they have free access to the whole set of narratives of their community, which they know by having been initiated into it as native listeners. Obviously enough, they make choices in the range of tales at their disposal; for example, they relate some stories preferentially to others on the strength of personal taste. But the way traditional storytellers operate, up to the very formulation of essential narrative details, is strongly controlled by prevalent aesthetic canons that are commonly shared by both the storytellers and their audiences. Similarly, the places, venues, and occasions regarded as appropriate for the production of narratives are defined by rather strict rules known by all concerned.
