Traditional Storytelling Today explores the diversity of contemporary storytelling traditions and provides a forum for in-depth discussion of interesting facets of comtemporary storytelling. Never before has such a wealth of information about storytelling traditions been gathered together. Storytelling is alive and well throughout the world as the approximately 100 articles by more than 90 authors make clear. Most of the essays average 2,000 words and discuss a typical storytelling event, give a brief sample text, and provide theory from the folklorist. A comprehensive index is provided. Bibliographies afford the reader easy access to additional resources.

This celebratory publication is an expression of deepest gratitude to Herta Nagl-Docekal. With this volume, colleagues, graduates and friends want to celebrate her philosophical oeuvre. Her entire life’s work has been characterized by both humanitarian and humanist commitment: to seek the principles of justice in the co-existence of human beings, but that philosophy also provides the basic yardstick, to highlight distortions on recent theories. Her philosophical work is alive with the commitment to a philosophy which is compelled to seek the principles of greater justice and solidarity

In this creative and engaging reading, Richard Kuhns explores the ways in which Decameron'ssexual themes lead into philosophical inquiry, moral argument, and aesthetic and literary criticism. As he reveals the stories' many philosophical insights and literary pleasures, Kuhns also examines Decameronin the context of the nature of storytelling, its relationship to other classic works of literature, and the culture of trecento Italy. Stories and storytelling are to be interpreted in terms of a wider cultural context that includes masks, metamorphosis, mythic themes, and character analysis, all of which Boccaccio explores with wit and subtlety. As a storyteller, Boccaccio represents himself as literary pimp, conceiving the relationship between storyteller and audience in sexual terms within a tradition that goes back as far as Socrates' conversations with the young Athenians. As a whole, Boccaccio's great collection of stories creates a trenchant criticism of the ideas that dominated his social and cultural world. Addressed as it is to women who were denied opportunities for education, the author's stories create a university of wise and culturally observant texts. He teaches that comic, religious, sexual, and artistic themes can be seen to function as metaphors for hidden and often dangerous unorthodox thoughts. Kuhns suggests that Decameronis one of the first self-conscious creations of what we today call "a total work of art." Throughout the stories, Boccaccio creates a detailed picture of the Florentine trecento cultural world. Giotto, Buffalmacco, and other great painters of Boccaccio's time appear in the stories. Their works and the paintings that surround the characters as they prepare to leave the plague-ridden city, with their representations of Dante, Aquinas, and other thinkers, are essential to understanding the ways the stories work with other works of art and illuminate and enlarge interpretations of Boccaccio's book.

This book explores the intersections between dreaming and the literary imagination, in light of the findings of recent neurocognitive and empirical research, with the aim to lay a groundwork for an empirically informed aesthetics of dreaming. Drawing on perspectives from literary theory, philosophy of mind and dream research, this study investigates dreaming in relation to creativity and waking states of imagination such as writing and reading stories. Exploring the similarities and differences between the 'language' of dreams and the language of literature, it analyses the strategies employed by writers to create a sense of dream in literary fiction as well as the genres most conducive to this endeavour. The book closes with three case studies focusing on texts by Kazuo Ishiguro, Clare Boylan and John Banville to illustrate the diverse ways in which writers achieve to 'translate' the experience and 'language' of the dream.

A Life in Storytelling contains the reflections and lessons from one of the most noted storytellers of our times. Fifty years of storytelling has provided Binnie Tate Wilkin with the experiences and insights to form the basis of a text for the storyteller, both for the professional librarian, teacher or parent wanting to provide children with substance through story. The sections of the book are designed to provide background material for the art and craft of storytelling, the methods and uses of storytelling, sources and examples of stories, and a broad selection of over 100 stories briefly annotated. Included are sections that explain how to derive or adapt stories from current events, history, or imaginative writings and a detailed treatment in the use of dance in storytelling, a technique that, if not invented by Wilkin, has become a trademark of her approach. The treatment is always informal and personal and is interleaved with anecdotes drawn from the author’s more than 50 years of storytelling.

Series contains structured teaching units for nine most commonly studied text types.

This book provides a critical review of the impact of international academics on teaching practices in higher education. As borders and boundaries become increasingly blurred and virtual citizenship starts to impact on ways of working, being able to teach seamlessly across cultures and political divides will be critical to ensuring a thriving higher education sector. This book captures the impact of academic mobility on teaching practices which have been informed by academics’ original cultures being modified to align with those of a host culture. The book comprises three thematic sections which take the reader through the various stages of the internationalisation of higher education teaching practice. It starts with how teaching identities are constructed and influenced by culture and geopolitical factors and concludes with an exploration into the emergence of the global teaching practitioner who is able to work seamlessly across borders and boundaries. The core sections include: i) the geopolitics of teaching identities, ii) a sense of belonging and the lived experience of the academic nomad and iii) academic transition, from migration to integration. Providing practical tools for improving both students’ learning experiences and academics’ classroom practices this volume will be of use to researchers, students, and practitioners from the social sciences (specially business, management, and education) as well as foreign language tutors and TEFL practitioners. Human resource professionals, recruiters, and trainers responsible for recruiting, training, and developing international higher education staff will also find this book to be of interest.

In this absorbing collection of papers Aboriginal, Maori, Dalit and western scholars discuss and analyse the difficulties they have faced in writing Indigenous biographies and autobiographies. The issues range from balancing the demands of western and non-western scholarship, through writing about a family that refuses to acknowledge its identity, to considering a community demand not to write anything at all. The collection also presents some state-of-the-art issues in teaching Indigenous Studies based on auto/biography in Austria, Spain and Italy.

Life has no particular ceremony for choosing people to be thrust into the open public arena, whether favourable or not. Many times this happens with or without any actual input by that unsuspecting human being. Frank E. Burdett is one such person. He volunteered and joined the New Zealand Army to fi ght the Terrorists in the jungles of Malaysia. In one single night, his life changed forever when a man-eating tiger chose him as its next victim. Frank was attacked, mauled and dragged backwards along the rough and uneven jungle fl oor. This experience is related in his book, Sons of the Brave. Frank was diagnosed with terminal metastasized melanoma cancer. In July 2010 he was given 6 months to live after surgery and radiation treatment for cancer of both lungs, liver and bowel; but he then decided to undertake an alternative medical treatment and has been, to date, four years free of any cancer. He was encouraged to write his story by a leading oncologist in Brisbane in order to help other cancer victims. That book is entitled I Survived Metastacised Melanoma Cancer! The Purple Tree was written during his recovery period and allowed him to freely research his material, through friends, neighbours and well-meaning Australians. It has taken a long time to bring to light this interesting story about life in the Outback.