Storytelling: Verbal Art as Performance

This course offers a comparative selection of oral and written folktales from Arabic, Chinese, African, North American, and European traditions in translation in order to study the formation and reception of storytelling in different socio-cultural contexts (Western and non-Western, contemporary and traditional). We will consider storytelling and associated performance practice in the light of a variety of theoretical disciplines (e.g., rhetoric, folklore, sociolinguistics, performance studies, literary criticism, narratology). There will be lectures, presentations, and videorecordings.