The teller's tale: The role of the storyteller in the life of the story

• Main Author: Cummings Klein, Rachel
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01.01.2009
• Subjects: Adult education; Gerontology; Rhetoric
• ISBN: 110930806X; 9781109308068

Oral tradition has been a means to offer senior citizens the opportunity to share their stories and/or myths with future generations, and thus leaving a valued mark on society. There have been multiple studies highlighting the benefits of oral tradition in the preservation of history, but what remained to be studied were the specific stories that senior citizens passed down through oral tradition, the similarities and differences found among the stories, and the benefits to the community on a whole by utilizing intergenerational programs such as oral tradition. The design of this study utilized narrative research, a qualitative methodology. For the purpose of this study, the researcher focused on data collection through interviews wherein the senior volunteers told their story or stories to the researcher as well as through written backgrounds. The study focused on 11 senior citizens who volunteered at a hospital in San Francisco. Two meetings were conducted to ensure the validity as intended by the participants. Upon multiple reads and a thorough analysis of the 11 narratives, the researcher was able to isolate themes that occurred within the narratives. Four generative themes emerged including Community, Family, Human Rights and Immigration with 27 subthemes. In addition, eight types of oral tradition were present in the narratives alongside oral history. Given that many of the stories told were oral history and revolved around personal experiences through historical atrocities, it was apparent that these seniors felt the need to share what they had experienced. Thus, oral history was a major component in all of the narratives. The researcher concluded that this inclusion of oral history highlighted the need for the storyteller to inject themselves and their relationship to the story into the telling. Therefore, it can be said that the storyteller became just as important as the story itself and this idea alone immortalizes the senior.