On Telling Tales and The Art of Storytelling

On Telling Tales and The Art of Storytelling Telling Tales, by Emily S. Chasse. New York: Neal-Shuman, 2009. 269 pp. ISBN: 15555706452. Paper $77.00.The Art of Storytelling: Telling Truths through Telling Stories, by Amy E. Spaulding. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. 2011. 216 pp. ISBN: 0810877767. Cloth $49.95.It is worth reviewing Emily S. Chasse's Telling Tales and Amy E. Spaulding's Art of Storytelling together for a few reasons. First, Spaulding and Chasse share a sort of intellectual genealogy. They both came to storytelling through their work as librarians. They've since grown into tellers who identify with the kind of storytelling that was born out of the revival of the 1970s and 1980s. Second, both books provide a readable overview of the practice of contemporary storytelling. Third, and perhaps most important, they offer complimentary perspectives on writing about storytelling. Specifically, Spaulding offers a narrative voice without a directly academic tenor while Chasse leans toward the traditional voice of a textbook while avoiding a narrative tone. This distinction, between Spaulding's more embodied writing and Chasse's more distant academic writing, should be of interest to both academics and practitioners who read Storytelling, Self, Society. I would like to address the potential meaning of such a distinction in addition to articulating the unique values and relative shortcomings of each book.Spaulding's Art of Storytelling contains 16 short chapters divided into four sections. The first and fourth sections act as bookends that function as a sort of greeting and salutation that invite the reader in at the beginning and send them offat the end. This structure illustrates the conversational authorial tone that Spaulding takes throughout her book. Chapters 4-10 primarily address practical concerns such as selecting stories to tell, building a program of stories, interacting with audiences, and storytelling as a business venture.These chapters contain significant practical knowledge in the form of resource and reflection. Notably, she includes resources such as a lengthy "Storiography" and appendix of story collections, which together offer a wealth of resources for tellers of varied levels of experience. In addition, each chapter concludes with exercises that allow the readers to put what they have read in to action. These elements, along with the chapters on the business of storytelling and organizing a storytelling program, illustrate Spaulding's interest in the practical side of storytelling. However, more compelling to me is the way that Spaulding addresses more subtle concepts, such as a storyteller's responsibility to his or her audience. She addresses this responsibility in chapter 15, where she notes that "one of the first and most important things about storytelling is that it is free form, like an amoeba. It can be used for any intent" (124). She goes on to offer real-life examples of the moral conundrums storytellers face, from unexpected audience responses to the negative ends to which storytelling may be used.Chasse divides the structure of her book between storytelling methods and story genres. Roughly, six chapters are devoted to "how-to" topics, including research and performance techniques. They include background and basics, locating and selecting tales, preparing and performing tales, researching tales, community and classroom performances, and copyright, course planning, and professional considerations. Seven chapters are dedicated to story genres: classical mythology; family stories, life experience tales, reminiscences, and oral history; legends and epics; ballads; folktale country studies; digital storytelling; and tandem telling, plays, and puppetry. In short, she offers multiple perspectives on storytelling that allow readers with varied interests to find a point of entry into the text.Chasse's Telling Tales offers several benefits to its readers beyond its status as a "how-to" guide for storytellers. …