Telling Tales as Oral Performance: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Storytelling in Ireland, Scotland and Southern Appalachia

• Main Author: Tull, Annalee
• Format: Others
• Published: Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University 2014
• Subjects: storytelling; performance; culture; communication; narrative; Critical and Cultural Studies; International and Intercultural Communication; Performance Studies
• Online Access: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/2357; https://dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3694&context=etd

I sought to link, through this paper, cultural performances of identity through storytelling in Ireland, Scotland, and southern Appalachia. I evaluated storytelling practices, whether it was a public or private performance, using symbolic interactionism, dramatist theory, narrative paradigm, and performance theory. The author studied abroad in Ireland and Scotland through the East Tennessee State University Appalachian, Scottish, and Irish Studies Program and experienced an array of stories. She then evaluated her own experiences with storytelling from growing up in southern Appalachia and visited the International Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN. The research is rooted in grounded theory from ethnographies, with themes emerging from the field notes. The themes reinforced the theories evaluated tied the cultures together through history.