The Art of Storytelling: Animal & Freedom Tales. New World Philosophies

Storytelling
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Institutional Affiliation

Storytelling
Storytelling is an art whose objectives might change from one culture to another. A story remains a means by which people convey a personal truth or bring out their perspective on an issue (Peralta, 2010). The storyteller develops a story to take an audience to a different place and time. The composition of a story is beyond mere entertainment since stories relay judgment, life lessons, cultural memories and history (Peralta, 2010). Stories help us to understand our world by circulating beliefs, hopes, and dreams, human desires and they facilitate the efforts people make to explain themselves to others as they can convey emotions and bring the community to a similar level of understanding (Peralta, 2010). The aesthetic form of storytelling is created through the use of folkloric and mythic figures such as Ananse and Sango (Akoma, 2007). Further, the aesthetic is found in the voices of African griot, traditional storytellers, and chroniclers of history. Storytelling is a creation resulting from the use of metaphors. Using metaphors enables the audience to connect to the story without being explicit (Peralta, 2010). Metaphors are also important because they allow the audience to create their meaning and understanding of the story without the need of literal translations. The styles include:
Animal tales. The tales have their roots in African mythology. They comprise of characters such as Rabbit, Bear, and Fox. For instance, the character of Rabbit is presented as a trickster who is synonymous with the character of Anansi the spider in African mythology (Perlstein, 1992).
Supernatural tale. The stories provided explanations for the strange working of the universe. Additionally, the stories contain responsibility for right and wrong. Mostly the supernatural stories were used to empower and provide hope to the community (Perlstein, 1992).
Tall tale. Tall tales are evangelical-oriented as they try to explain the unexplainable. The stories tell of creation myths and other explanations that demystify the natural world. The stories were told by American slaves to explain the behaviors of the white masters (Perlstein, 1992).
Freedom tales. The tales were formulated to change the system that oppressed the blacks at the end of the 19th century. The stories told of escapes to freedom through imagined or actual encounters. The stories give hope that things will change through animal or theological analogs making the people believe that although the idea of liberty is difficult it can be attained.
The modern society is filled with people of different ethnic and racial groups. However, the African related text has survived and retained its attributes in a recognizable form (Akoma, 2007). Africans have often found themselves in societies dominated by people of European decent and various levels of interaction between them and indigenous people in America. The interaction created between cultures; languages and histories have led the African arts and philosophy to influence the new world writings. This effect is significantly noticed among Caribbean writers of African descent (Akoma, 2007). Storytelling has been used to portray cultural resistance to oppression....