Traditional Storytelling: Tellers and their Tales

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This module explores the verbal artistry of traditional storytelling in Ireland and introduces students to the narrative repertoires of individual storytellers, examining their stories in the context of their daily lives, personal experiences, hopes and preoccupations. The module focuses on the tradition as documented by the Irish Folklore Commission in the first half of the twentieth century, as well as on more recent manifestations. We look at male and female storytellers from a variety of geographical and occupational backgrounds, from the Gaelic storytellers of the western seaboard to the English-speaking storytellers north and south of the border. We explore the storytelling of the migrant Traveller community and also look at narrative song tradition.