Adventures, Mysteries, and Just Plain Lies: The Art of Telling Stories

(FS 101, Section 15)

Allegheny College

Fall 2006

MWF 11:00-11:50 a.m.

Ruter 106

Dr. Joshua Searle-White

Office: Carnegie 208

e-mail: jsearle@allegheny.edu

Telephone: 814/332-2706

Office Hours: M 2:30-5:00; W 2:30-4:00; TTh 11:00-12:00

or by appointment

Note: To listen to the storytelling radio show/podcast, click here!

Overview: Storytelling is both a traditional art and an everyday activity. This course will focus on increasing your ability to create and tell stories effectively in a variety of different settings. Along the way we will listen to and read stories from a variety of cultural and religious traditions. By the end of this course I hope you will have both a respect for the storytelling arts as well as the ability to tell a story powerfully and clearly.

Your First Semester: Because this is an FS101 course, I will also be your academic advisor for this first semester and probably for the first two years of your time at Allegheny. Some of the class sessions and some of the assignments for this course will focus on your transition to Allegheny, including selecting the best courses for you, planning for an eventual major, and developing the study habits and other skills you will need to be successful here.

Peer Leaders: Three upper-class students will assist me in teaching this course, and they will be resources for you during this first semester. Their names and e-mail addresses are Jesse Papia (papiaj@allegheny.edu), Ali Heffner (heffnea@allegheny.edu), and Brian Kirklin (kirklib@allegheny.edu). You’ll see a lot of them.

Class Sessions: In this course, as in every course, the class sessions are central to your learning in the course. I expect you to attend every class session; the only reason for missing a session would be illness or a family emergency. If you find that you need to miss a class for one of those reasons, please let me know before the beginning of class.

Readings: The following text is required:

Lipman, D. (1999). Improving your storytelling. Little Rock: August House.

There is also a readings packet available for you to buy in the College Bookstore. It includes:

Bright, W. (1993). A coyote reader. Berkeley: University of California Press. (pp. xi-xiii; 84-88; 105-117)

Burlingame, E. W. (Trans.) (1922). Buddhist parables. New Haven: Yale University Press. (pp. xxv-15)

Campbell, J. (1949/1968). The hero with a thousand faces. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (pp. 30-38)

Downs, R. B. (1944). Introduction: The oral tradition. In J. B. Wilson, The story experience (pp. vii-xiii). Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press.

Elliott, E., & Stallcup, J. (1997). American oral tradition. In D. A. Leeming & M. Sader (Eds.), Storytelling encyclopedia: Historical, cultural, and multiethnic approaches to oral traditions around the world (pp. 16-26). Phoenix: The Oryx Press.

Erdoes, R. (1991). Tales from the American frontier. New York: Pantheon Books. (pp. xiii-xix; 63-69; 297-298; 305-308; 424-429)

Kinkead, G. (1988, July 18). An overgrown Jack. The New Yorker 64(22), 33-41.

Kroeber, K. (Ed.) (2004). Native American storytelling: A reader of myths and legends. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. (pp. 1-8)

McKee, R. (1997). Story. New York: ReganBooks. (pp. 3-28)

 Schram, P. (1987). Jewish stories one generation tells another. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson Inc. (pp. xxv-xxxiii, 4-5, 20-24)

 Shah, I. (1977). The pleasantries of the incredible Mulla Nasrudin. London: Octagon Press. (pp. 13, 18, 22, 25, 50)

Silko, L. M. (1996). Yellow woman and a beauty of the spirit: Essays on Native American life today. New York: Simon & Schuster. (pp. 48-59)

Ward, V. (1990) (Ed.). I always tell the truth (even if I have to lie to do it!): Stories from the Adirondack Liars’ Club. Greenfield Center, NY: Greenfield Center Press. (pp. 5-24)

Washburn, W. E. (1983). The noble and ignorant savage. In R. M. Dorson (ed.), Handbook of American folklore (pp. 60-65). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

There are also two on-line articles I would like you to read. They are:

“Allegheny College's definition of plagiarism,” available at “http://webpub.allegheny.edu/dept/ writingcenter/Links/plagiarism.htm”.

  Regan-Blake, C. (2004). From another time: The legacy of Ray Hicks. On-line publication available at: “http://www.storywindow.com/articles/scrapbook_ray.htm”.

Finally, there is one reading that is on electronic reserve in the library. I’ll explain in class how to gain access to it. That reading is:

Goss, L., & Barnes, M. (Eds.) (1989). Talk that talk: An anthology of African-American storytelling. New York: Touchstone Publishers. (pp. 9-19; 117-125; 179-181; 357-359; 424-428; 431-434) [These are selections by the editors, Henry Louis Gates, Jack and Rosa Maddox, D’Jimo Kouyate, Constance García-Barrio, Dick Gregory, Larry G. Coleman, Bill Cosby, and Alvin Poussaint.]

I may assign other readings later in the semester.

Listening: Over the course of the semester we will listen to a wide variety of stories and storytellers. Some of that listening will be done in class. However, a number of stories will be available on electronic reserve; all you need to do to listen to them is go to the e-reserve page, type in the password (which I will give you in class), and download the stories to listen to them. Obviously, just as with photocopies, you should not duplicate these stories – just listen to them for class.

Here are the stories on electronic reserve:

• Sheila Kay Adams, “Little Betty and Amos” (from the National Storytelling Network’s “Live & Thriving at the 30^th National Storytelling Festival”) [note: this is listed as “Adams #1 in the course outline below];

· Ed Stivender, “Cinderella” (from the National Storytelling Network’s “Tales of Humor & Wit”);

· Josh Searle-White, “Adventure Calls” (from “Letter Poker”);

· Kathryn Windham, “The Hole That Will Not Stay Filled” (from the National Storytelling Network’s “Graveyard Tales);

· Connie Regan-Blake, “Mary Culhane” (from “Spirits Walk: Chilling Tales for Teenagers and Adults,” produced by Mythic Stream Productions);

· Bil Lepp, “There Stands a Bridge” (from “Buck Meets the Monster Stick,” produced by August House Audio);

• Ray Hicks, “Jack and the Three Steers” (from “Ray Hicks Tells Four Traditional Jack Tales,” produced by Folk-Legacy Records)

· Johnny Moses, “The Creation of the Butt Hole” (from the National Storytelling Network’s “Live and Thriving at the 30^th National Storytelling Festival”)

• Alice McGill, “When Africans Could Fly” (from the National Storytelling Network’s “A Storytelling Treasury”);
• Mary Carter Smith, “Cindy Ellie” (from the National Storytelling Network’s “Best-Loved Stories Told at the National Storytelling Festival”)
• Syd Lieberman, “Challas in the Ark” (from the National Storytelling Network’s “A Storytelling Treasury”);
• Pleasant DeSpain, “The Nature of Things” (from the National Storytelling Network’s “A Storytelling Treasury”);
• Bill Harley, “The Great Sled Race” (from “The Battle of the Mad Scientists,” produced by Round River Records);
• Sheila Kay Adams, “Inez and the Snake Handlers” (from “What Ever Happened to John Parrish’s Boy?,” produced by Granny Dell Records) [this is listed as “Adams #2 in the course outline below]; and
• Sheila Kay Adams, “Whatever Happened to John Parrish’s Boy?” (from “What Ever Happened to John Parrish’s Boy?,” produced by Granny Dell Records) [this is listed as “Adams #3 in the course outline below].

If you would like to obtain your own copies of these stories, you can get them through the various production companies that are listed.

Radio show: As part of the course, we will host a storytelling radio show on WARC, the Allegheny College radio station, probably on Thursday evenings from 7 to 8 p.m. I’ll describe this project in more detail in class, but you should know that you will appear at least once on the show to tell a story of your own creation, and you will also meet with me in advance of the show at least once to help create an episode of the serial that we will tell each week. It should be interesting …

Assignments: Over the course of the semester you will complete a number of written and oral assignments. The points available for the assignments are listed below; I will give more details in handouts that I will distribute in class.

Participation: I value your participation in the class sessions very highly (as you can see below, it is more than ¼ of your grade!). Your participation grade is based on your class attendance, your preparation for class (as evidence by your analyzing the readings when called upon and your participation in the discussion), your understanding of the readings and issues we are examining, your critiques of your colleagues’ stories, your attentiveness during class activities, your participation in the radio show, and your performance on any ungraded assignments I assign.

Grading: The possible scores on each of your assignments are as follows:

Best story ever assignment	10 points
Summarizing assignment	10 points
Story #1 first draft	10 points
Story #1 second draft	20 points
Story #1 performance	20 points
Story #1 performance response	10 points
Book release concert response	10 points
Folktale topic paper	10 points
Folktale paper draft	20 points
Folktale paper	40 points
Reflective essay	10 points
Story #2 (written & oral)	50 points
Final Exam	50 points
Participation	100 points
Total	370 points

At the end of the semester I will assign grades based on the usual formula (90-100%=A, 80-89%=B, etc.).

Honor code:

As you know, by matriculating at Allegheny you agreed to participate in the College’s student-run Honor Code. The details of the Honor Code are spelled out in the Compass. In general, I want you to be talking with your colleagues about the material of the course, and I hope that you will study together and discuss the issues together. However, all the work on any graded assignments you turn in must be your own.