In a Q&A session in Warsaw I was asked about how oral stories are passed through generations. This is how I explained it to the audience.
Imagine history is a game of Chinese Whispers. The story is told, heard and passed on. In this instance I passed “She sells sea shells on the sea shore!” which became “Lis i kot!”. This simple, funny example highlights a few things which are relevant to stories and storytellers.
In the game, my whisper was misremembered as it is passed. Misremembering can be accidental but it can also be deliberate; reinterpreting/sanitising/reimagining a story for a purpose. Does misremembering matter if it’s a good story? That would depend upon the storyteller’s purpose. Time and personality can also be variables. In my Chinese Whisper game, I had five volunteers. I think my whisper was initially misheard and adapted but could one of the volunteers have changed it intentionally? Whilst some stories have evolved over hundreds of years, in my time as a storyteller I have certainly tweaked the narrative of the stories I work with regularly and honed my phrasing to suit my style and purpose.
The other interesting dynamic in the game was language. My whisper was in English but when I asked for the whisper to be announced it had been translated into Polish. When working with second language English speakers I am mindful that we are also practising speaking and listening skills . I try to use my words carefully and economically to make my stories more accessible. I also have a heightened awareness of my choices of gesture to complement rather than detract from the spoken word. This doesn’t mean dumbing down but becoming more efficient with the quantity and richness of vocabulary. This is a lesson which I have also taken into my work with younger children.
Whether, as I have done recently, we are telling stories to children in Britain, Portugal, Spain or Poland, the messages we send and how they are received and reinterpreted matter to our purpose as storytellers. Only through the clear communication of narrative can we hope to be ultimately successful.
*Fox and cat!