Storytelling is an integral part of
daily life. It happens everywhere – where a group a people come together, to do
something, to share something, to just be together. All families are of
stories, and it is a fact universally acknowledged that all grandmothers are
natural storytellers. Teacher too tell stories to pre-schools and every
corporate is full of its own special stories. Newspapers are full of stories –
extraordinary and sometimes horrific. Human beings are natural storytellers. It
is a natural urge, like breathing perhaps. When people share stories, they make
sense of their experiences while rediscovering their identity through the
narratives they tell and hear.
As Walter Benjamin says, 'The
storyteller takes what he tells from experience - his own or that reported by
others. And he in turn makes it the experience of those who are listening to
his tale.'
We listen to stories to experience that
special ‘moment of becoming’ when we can learn something about ourselves and
the world around us. Storytelling
more than any other cultural act produces and transforms our ideas of identity
and belonging.
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