Storytelling: Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Perspectives. By Irene Maria F. Blayer and Monica Sanchez, eds. (New York: Peter Lang, 2002. Pp. xi + 321, ISBN 0-8204-5125-8)

As a professor of folklore, storytelling is one course that I truly enjoy teaching. Many of those who take the course are in-service teachers from widely diverse and varied disciplines. Therefore, I am always looking for new books and other publications that will not only relate to storytelling as process, but also demonstrate the connection between storytelling and culture. In this age of multiculturalism and diversity Blayer and Sanchez have made a credible and important contribution to this end by carefully and deliberately bringing together a relevant and significant set of essays that represents a full range and treatment of differing cultures and disciplines. Ruth Tooze, one of the earlier movers and shakers in the area of storytelling, proposed what the process should entail in her 1959 tome entitled Storytelling wherein she emphasized the process and technique of the art and science of presenting oral narrative. If we look at the Tooze material and couple it with the current volume, we discover the “missing” piece of the picture. When we take the process and connect it to the purpose or reveal its reason for being, then we can better utilize and gain from the experience. The contributing essayists have provided a clear and informative explanation as to the importance for studying, analyzing, and assessing storytelling and providing the connection to both disciplines and cultures alike by illustrating the connection between storytelling and their own discipline. Stone’s use of geography as a means of springboarding into “crossing the borders” into a story is a creative and highly interesting approach to the oral narrative. His blending as a geographer and folklorist results in a clear and articulate map that guides us confidently across the borders. His use of the “passport” metaphor was very clever as it was appropriate. This essay successfully illustrates the uniqueness of the culture though adjacent in proximity. Yet, conversely, Sturn’s essay clearly and effectively presents the theoretical and conceptual framework that emphasizes the storylistening aspect of storytelling, a part often neglected. His presentation of the theory and his attempt to graphically explain its complexity and structure is remarkably astute. He has succeeded in clarifying that which is abstract and translating it to a more concrete format. Federici’s presentation tackles the issue of interpretation illustrated by using the novels of Eco. Her background in semiotics is obviously revealed as she makes a case for the connection between symbol and communication. Though Marshall McLuhan, in the 1970s, emphasized “medium is the message,” Federici makes a very strong argument for the importance of symbol and interpretation as a means to getting at the heart and soul of storytelling as exhibited by the literature selected for demonstrative purposes. DeCosta takes us to the next phase, that of the purely cultural connection or influence. She shows the sociopolitical reflections of a given culture in the literary contributions of that culture. If the storyteller is indeed an agent of socialization, then this essay successfully proves this to be the case. The introduction of testimonial narrative and its complexities is well presented. Her bridging of ethnography and linguistics through narrative is consistent with the overall theme of this volume. DeCosta, too, has been effective in her showing the interdisciplinary and intercultural importance of storytelling. The next four articles share more in common than did the first four. By noting the titles one can immediately get a sense of a wonderfully seasoned blending of a variety of related and relative components to the areas of interdisciplinary and intercultural emphasis, be it literary or folk. Behrisch engages in a very interesting discussion of the fall of the …