1st Edition

A Multimodal Perspective on Applied Storytelling Performances Narrativity in Context

By Soe Marlar Lwin Copyright 2020
    172 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    172 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    In this volume, Soe Marlar Lwin proposes a contextualized multimodal framework that brings together storytelling practitioners’ and academic researchers’ conceptions of storytelling. It aims to highlight the ways in which various institutions in contemporary society have been using live storytelling performances as an effective communicative, educative and meaning-making tool. Drawing on theories of narrative from narratology as well as from related fields such as discourse analysis, multimodal analysis, communication and performance studies, the author proposes a contextualized multimodal framework to











    (a) uncover the potential narrativity of a live storytelling performance through an analysis of narrative elements constituting the story,









    (b) capture the process of developing actual narrativity through a multimodal analysis of performance features in the storytelling discourse, and









    (c) highlight the importance of context and dynamics between the storyteller and audience for an achievement of optimal narrativity in a particular storytelling event.









    The sample analysis shows how the framework not only describes the system governing institutionalized storytelling performances in general but also serves as a useful model to examine individual performance as a unique realization of the general system. The book also offers implications for possible applications of such contextualized multimodal frameworks more broadly across the disciplines.

    1. Introduction

    2. Narrativity of Oral Storytelling

    3. Contextualized Multimodal Framework

    4. Application: Illustrative Examples

    5. Insights and Implications

    6. Expanded Application and Conclusion

    Biography

    Soe Marlar Lwin is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics in the School of Humanities and Behavioural Sciences, Singapore University of Social Sciences.

    “Lwin unites performance features and narrative content in order to analyze the emerging narrative structure by examining multiple live applied storytelling performances. Lwin focuses on the story, the storytelling discourse, and the storytelling event, which are the key elements in the proposed multimodal framework in an applied storytelling performance. Both scholars and practitioners alike should find Lwin’s approach to explaining the concepts of narratology, multimodal communication, stylistics, performance studies, and discourse analysis interesting and useful.”
    Kaitlin Cannava, PhD, Research Consultant and Lecturer, San Jose State University, USA
    Review in Storytelling, Self, Society journal Vol 16, Issue 1