We humans are by nature ‘storytelling animals’ (as Jonathan Gottschall, specialist in literature and evolution, puts it). From our earliest beginnings, stories have been critical to our survival and essential to our world view. In everyday life, many kinds of narratives are being used, ranging from personal communication to international politics and from literature to films and computer games. Although the folk tradition of oral storytelling has more or less died out in the West during the last centuries, new storytellers are appearing everywhere on stage, attracting fresh audiences hungry for stories and willing to connect with ancient traditions. Most of contemporary storytelling practice is indebted to oral folktale traditions, which in their turn often use earlier narratives.
This international conference proposes to study the phenomenon of oral storytelling from its early beginnings in the Ancient Near East to the present day. It wants to explore oral storytelling by comparing various regions and periods of time. It targets a broader audience from inside and outside the academic world. All people interested in oral storytelling as a cultural phenomenon are welcome to attend. The programme will involve lectures by academics specializing in historical storytelling, as well as performers of modern storytelling. By combining lectures, discussions and on-stage performances, as well as a museum visit and a workshop by academics and practitioners, this conference will facilitate complementary sharing of knowledge and expertise. It will also explore oral storytelling as cultural heritage and contemporary practice.
Interested? Please register here
Programme
Friday 10 October
Venue: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Kerkzaal, Main Building, room HG 16-00
9:15-9:30h Introduction - Emilie van Opstall (organizer)
9:30-10:45h The spring of oral storytelling
- ‘Leave that tale, I will tell you another tale!’. Examples of storytelling in the Hittite Empire – Dr Willemijn Waal, senior lecturer Assyriology / Hittitology at Leiden University
- Orality and writing in Homeric and Babylonian epic: comparison and open questions – Dr Bernardo Ballesteros Petrella, researcher at Oxford and Vienna, specialized in Akkadian, Sumerian and Classics
Discussion
10:45-11:15h Coffee break
11:15-13.00h Medieval and early modern tales
- Sindbad the Philosopher’s travels through the medieval world – Emilie van Opstall, senior lecturer Ancient and Medieval Greek at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- From medieval page to modern stage: The politics and process of adapting ‘The Seven Sages of Rome’ – Jane Bonsall, research fellow of German, University of St. Andrews
- How to tell an Eastern tale in the West: creating and narrating the Oriental Female Protagonist – Ipek Hüner, assistant professor Early Modern Ottoman Literature at Bogazici University Istanbul
Discussion
13:00-14:15h Lunch break, lunch for invited guests
14:15-16.15h Connecting to the tradition
- Telling it with termites – Unearthing a deep source of storytelling in Africa – Jan Jansen, senior lecturer of anthropology at Leiden University
- A woman at war. Feminist retellings of the Kahina oral tradition in the Amazigh diaspora – Norah Karrouche, assistant professor of History at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- Hakawati (Storyteller) in Iraq: Mosul as a study case –Wifaq Alabdahameed, representative of the UNESCO project ‘Revive the Spirit of Mosul’
Discussion
Venue: Mezrab
20:00-22.30h evening program
Live Storytelling evening at International Storytelling Centre Mezrab, Amsterdam including light dinner
Saturday 11 October
Venue: World Museum Amsterdam
10:00-11:00h
Connecting to the world: telling stories in the museum – with Mohammad Babazadeh, storyteller in Worldmuseum Amsterdam
Coffee break
11.15-13.00h
Workshop storytelling (for ca. 12 participants) by Sahand Sahebdivani from International Storytelling Centre Mezrab, Amsterdam
Final discussion
Lunch for invited guests
