Women Escaping Violence: Empowerment through Narrative

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Would you also like to submit a review for this item? You already recently rated this item. Your rating has been recorded. Write a review Rate this item: Preview this item Preview this item. Elaine J Lawless Publisher: State or province government publication: English View all editions and formats Summary:. Find a copy online Links to this item ebrary.

Allow this favorite library to be seen by others Keep this favorite library private. Find a copy in the library Finding libraries that hold this item Details Additional Physical Format: Government publication, State or province government publication, Internet resource Document Type: Elaine J Lawless Find more information about: Publisher Synopsis And then that ended. User-contributed reviews Add a review and share your thoughts with other readers.

The characters in these stories are usually likeable, strong women who overcome adversity such as poverty and violence brought on by the drinking of their father or spouse. After years of begging and pleading with him to stop drinking, she pretends to take up drinking herself. John is moved to tears at the sight and pledges to never drink again.

Readers learn, although John never does, that the liquid she consumes is merely water. This story, as do many of them, illustrates a woman tired of fending for herself and her children while her husband spends all his time at the pub drinking away their income. She uses her own cunning to convince him to stop, and stop he does. As mentioned earlier, many temperance authors also engaged in larger social concerns. The women who tell their stories are abused by fathers, brothers, uncles, acquaintances, husbands, and boyfriends.

The abuse is often compounded when they go to the police or turn to the judicial system for assistance.

Women Escaping Violence - Empowerment through Narrative (Electronic book text)

They may find themselves in an even worse situation with little or no real protection; many times going to the police only exacerbates the abuse. An important exigence for Lawless, therefore, is to illustrate how abused women are treated poorly by our legal system. In other words, the undertext of their stories uncovers and draws attention to equally important, but in these cases secondary, social concerns.

In fact, they do not have a particular audience in mind as most of them were prompted by Lawless to tell their stories and therefore do not have a political exigence. This explains the emphasis Lawless places on language. In addition to its traditional forms fairytales , folktales , mythology , legends , fables etc. Contemporary storytelling is also widely used to address educational objectives. Tools for asynchronous group communication can provide an environment for individuals to reframe or recast individual stories into group stories.

Documentaries , including interactive web documentaries , employ storytelling narrative techniques to communicate information about their topic. Oral traditions of storytelling are found in several civilisations; they predate the printed and online press.

Women escaping violence : empowerment through narrative

Storytelling was used to explain natural phenomena, bards told stories of creation and developed a pantheon of gods and myths. Oral stories passed from one generation to the next and storytellers were regarded as healers, leader, spiritual guides, teachers, cultural secrets keepers and entertainers. Oral storytelling came in various forms including songs, poetry, chants and dance. Albert Bates Lord examined oral narratives from field transcripts of Yugoslav oral bards collected by Milman Parry in the s, and the texts of epics such as the Odyssey and Beowulf.

Lord identified two types of story vocabulary. The first he called "formulas": In other words, oral stories are built out of set phrases which have been stockpiled from a lifetime of hearing and telling stories. The other type of story vocabulary is theme, a set sequence of story actions that structure a tale. Just as the teller of tales proceeds line-by-line using formulas, so he proceeds from event-to-event using themes. One near-universal theme is repetition, as evidenced in Western folklore with the " rule of three ": Three brothers set out, three attempts are made, three riddles are asked.

A theme can be as simple as a specific set sequence describing the arming of a hero , starting with shirt and trousers and ending with headdress and weapons. A theme can be large enough to be a plot component. A theme does not belong to a specific story, but may be found with minor variation in many different stories.

The story was described by Reynolds Price , when he wrote:. Millions survive without love or home, almost none in silence; the opposite of silence leads quickly to narrative, and the sound of story is the dominant sound of our lives, from the small accounts of our day's events to the vast incommunicable constructs of psychopaths. Folklorists sometimes divide oral tales into two main groups: They are clearly not intended to be understood as true. The stories are full of clearly defined incidents, and peopled by rather flat characters with little or no interior life.

When the supernatural occurs, it is presented matter-of-factly, without surprise. Indeed, there is very little effect, generally; bloodcurdling events may take place, but with little call for emotional response from the listener. Sagen , best translated as " legends ", are supposed to have actually happened, very often at a particular time and place, and they draw much of their power from this fact.

Reciprocal Ethnography and the Power of Women's Narratives

When the supernatural intrudes as it often does , it does so in an emotionally fraught manner. Ghost and lovers' leap stories belong in this category, as do many UFO stories and stories of supernatural beings and events. Another important examination of orality in human life is Walter J. Ong 's Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word Ong studies the distinguishing characteristics of oral traditions, how oral and written cultures interact and condition one another, and how they ultimately influence human epistemology. Storytelling is a means for sharing and interpreting experiences.

Berger says human life is narratively rooted, humans construct their lives and shape their world into homes in terms of these groundings and memories.

Stories are universal in that they can bridge cultural, linguistic and age-related divides. Storytelling can be adaptive for all ages, leaving out the notion of age segregation. So, every story has 3 parts. First, The setup The Hero's world before the adventure starts.

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Second, The Confrontation The hero's world turned upside down. Third, The Resolution Hero conquers villain, but it's not enough for Hero to survive. The Hero or World must be transformed. Any story can be framed in such format. Human knowledge is based on stories and the human brain consists of cognitive machinery necessary to understand, remember and tell stories.

Facts can be understood as smaller versions of a larger story, thus storytelling can supplement analytical thinking. Because storytelling requires auditory and visual senses from listeners, one can learn to organize their mental representation of a story, recognize structure of language and express his or her thoughts. Stories tend to be based on experiential learning, but learning from an experience is not automatic. Often a person needs to attempt to tell the story of that experience before realizing its value. In this case, it is not only the listener who learns, but the teller who also becomes aware of his or her own unique experiences and background.

Storytelling taps into existing knowledge and creates bridges both culturally and motivationally toward a solution. Stories are effective educational tools because listeners become engaged and therefore remember. Storytelling can be seen as a foundation for learning and teaching. While the storylistener is engaged, they are able to imagine new perspectives, inviting a transformative and empathetic experience.

Together a storyteller and listener can seek best practices and invent new solutions. Because stories often have multiple layers of meanings, listeners have to listen closely to identify the underlying knowledge in the story. Storytelling is used as a tool to teach children the importance of respect through the practice of listening. To teach this a Kinesthetic learningstyle would be used, involving the listeners through music, dream interpretation, or dance.

For indigenous cultures of the Americas, storytelling is used as an oral form of language associated with practices and values essential to developing one's identity. This is because everyone in the community can add their own touch and perspective to the narrative collaboratively — both individual and culturally shared perspectives have a place in the co-creation of the story. Oral storytelling in indigenous communities differs from other forms of stories because they are told not only for entertainment, but for teaching values. Furthermore, Storytelling is a way to teach younger members of indigenous communities about their culture and their identities.

In Donna Eder's study, Navajos were interviewed about storytelling practices that they have had in the past and what changes they want to see in the future. They notice that storytelling makes an impact on the lives of the children of the Navajos. According to some of the Navajos that were interviewed, storytelling is one of many main practices that teaches children the important principles to live a good life. For some indigenous people, experience has no separation between the physical world and the spiritual world. Thus, some indigenous people communicate to their children through ritual, storytelling, or dialogue.

Community values, learned through storytelling, help to guide future generations and aid in identity formation. In the Quechua community of Highland Peru, there is no separation between adults and children. This allows for children to learn storytelling through their own interpretations of the given story. Therefore, children in the Quechua community are encouraged to listen to the story that is being told in order to learn about their identity and culture.

Sometimes, children are expected to sit quietly and listen actively. This enables them to engage in activities as independent learners. This teaching practice of storytelling allowed children to formulate ideas based on their own experiences and perspectives. In Navajo communities, for children and adults, storytelling is one of the many effective ways to educate both the young and old about their cultures, identities and history.

Storytelling help the Navajos know who they are, where they come from and where they belong. Storytelling in indigenous cultures is sometimes passed on by oral means in a quiet and relaxing environment, which usually coincides with family or tribal community gatherings and official events such as family occasions, rituals, or ceremonial practices. This is because narrators may choose to insert new elements into old stories dependent upon the relationship between the storyteller and the audience, making the story correspond to each unique situation.

Indigenous cultures also use instructional ribbing — a playful form of correcting children's undesirable behavior— in their stories. For example, the Ojibwe or Chippewa tribe uses the tale of an owl snatching away misbehaving children. The caregiver will often say, "The owl will come and stick you in his ears if you don't stop crying! There are various types of stories among many indigenous communities. Communication in Indigenous American communities is rich with stories, myths, philosophies and narratives that serve as a means to exchange information. Very often, the stories are used to instruct and teach children about cultural values and lessons.

In the Lakota Tribe of North America, for example, young girls are often told the story of the White Buffalo Calf Woman , who is a spiritual figure that protects young girls from the whims of men. In the Odawa Tribe , young boys are often told the story of a young man who never took care of his body, and as a result, his feet fail to run when he tries to escape predators. This story serves as an indirect means of encouraging the young boys to take care of their bodies.

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