Storytelling
Body:
The Thousand and One Nights: Using storytelling to delay negative outcomes- both in the main story and in within the stories. Connects to this idea that characters in the story can never give up an opportunity to hear a story.
- Shahrazad- “I would like you to marry me to King Shahrayar, so that I may either succeed in saving the people or perish and die like the rest” (562)
- The Story of the Fisherman and the Demon- “Fisherman, don’t do it. Spare me and save me and don’t blame me for my action and offense against you. If I did ill, you should do good. As the saying goes, ‘Be kind to him who wrongs you.’ Don’t do what Imama did to ‘Atika.” The fisherman asked, “What did Imama do to ‘Atika?” (591)
Dante’s Inferno: For Dante, the character, storytelling is both a form of immortalizing and thus in some ways a way to “pay a debt” or “repay others” and something that he expects to receive. In some ways his ability to retell these stories make him more worthy than the sinners and he emphasizes this by repeating this.
- “you taught me how man makes himself eternal./ And while I live my tongue shall always speak/ of my debt to you, and of my gratitude. ” (442)
- “‘I am a living man’ was my reply, / ‘and it might serve you well, if you seek fame,/ for me to put your name down in my notes” (502)
- “this man can give you what all long for here,/ and so bend down, and do not scowl at us./ He still can spread your legend in the world,/ for he yet lives, and long life lies before him,/ unless Grace summons him before his time” (499)
The Odyssey: Odysseus uses story telling as a way to build social bonds in order to gain help from the hosts he visits. By not giving away his identity at first and instead telling stories of his journey and then revealing who he is, he makes himself appear better.
Hi Delsy!
You’re off to a great start. I chose the same topic and feel that we have some of the same ideas. Your supporting evidence for Dante’s Inferno is greatly selected. I also agree that Dante’s ability to go back into the world and write his poem/tell stories makes him more worthy than the sinners but also makes him more worthy to the sinners. Whenever they would find out that Dante was alive and was going to return to earth they would suddenly become much interested in him. Some would tell him their story in hopes Dante will speak of them once he returns while few would be embarrassed and chose to keep it secret. This idea that Dante speaking of them either by putting their names in his poem or simply reciting what he has seen reminds me of the Odyssey in that both the sinners as well as Odysseus and other heroes want to be remembered in the future/ live eternally through these stories. (Hope that made sense, just a though). Anyways, like I said you’re on the right track and I look forward to your final piece!
Hi Delsey,
Vitoria’s right–this is a great start!
One thing I immediately notice is that in every section–especially the first two, which are more developed–you are connecting two different aspects of storytelling. For example, writing on the Thousand and One Nights, you note that characters’ inability to resist a tale relates to the tales’ function (or, one of them) as a delaying mechanism. Writing about the Inferno, you observe that stories function both as a means of paying a debt, and of gaining immortality. This will, I think, lead to a very rich and complex essay. One of the first tasks, right now, is to consider why each author (or group of authors) focuses on these aspects of tale-telling. As a reader, I want to know how these different functions–stories providing irresistible pleasure and buying time, stories as some kind of penance or payment and stories as immortal fame–relate to one another. In addition to HOW they relate, it’s important also to consider WHY the authors’ of these texts have chosen to relate them in these ways. What larger point–about the relationship of narrative to sociability? Of stories to justice? of stories to pleasure and excitement–is being made in each text?
This brings me to the harder question, one that I think you’ll be able to address after you have a draft underway: what is the driving claim of the paper? Ultimately, you’ll need to have an argument running throughout each section, without losing the specificity and complexity of your arguments, here. It’s possible that storytelling, in your account, structures social relations, but it seems to me that you’re arguing also for something like PLEASURE as a key category: pleasure in the hearing (in the Thousand and One Nights and the Odyssey) and perhaps in the telling (in The Inferno).
Really looking forward to seeing the final version.
Best,
Prof Kolb
PS Have a look at my comment on Vitoria’s post, which is similar in some ways, though has a different structure within each section. I’m pretty sure you’ll end up writing very different papers, though at this stage, some of the same advice applies to both of you.