Date: 12-Oct-2004 From: Julia Ulrich <julia.ulrichdegruyter.com> Subject: Narrative as Social Practice: Klapproth
Title: Narrative as Social Practice
Subtitle: Anglo-Western and Australian Aboriginal Oral Traditions
Series Title: Language, Power and Social Process 13
Hardback: ISBN: 3110181363 Pages: xiii, 472 Price: U.S. $ 88.00 Comment: Euro 88.00
Paperback: ISBN: 3110181371 Pages: xiii, 472 Price: U.S. $ 32.95 Comment: Euro 32.95
Abstract:
"Narrative as Social Practice" sets out to explore the complex and
fascinating interrelatedness of narrative and culture. It does so by
contrasting the oral storytelling traditions of two widely divergent
cultures - Anglo-Western culture and the Central Australian culture of the
Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara Aborigines. Combining discourse-analytical
and pragmalinguistic methodologies with the perspectives of ethnopoetics
and the ethnography of communication, this book presents a highly original
and engaging study of storytelling as a vital communicative activity at the
heart of socio-cultural life. The book is concerned with both theoretical
and empirical issues. It engages critically with the theoretical framework
of social constructivism and the notion of social practice, and it offers
critical discussions of the most influential theories of narrative put
forward in Western thinking. Arguing for the adoption of a communication-
oriented and cross-cultural perspective as a prerequisite for improving our
understanding of the cultural variability of narrative practice, Klapproth
presents detailed textual analyses of Anglo-Western and Australian
Aboriginal oral narratives, and contextualizes them with respect to the
different storytelling practices, values and worldviews in both cultures.
Narrative as Social Practice will offer new insights to students and
specialists in the fields of narratology, discourse analysis,
cross-cultural pragmatics, anthropology, folklore study, the ethnography of
communication, and Australian Aboriginal studies.
Danièle M. Klapproth is Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Berne,
Switzerland.
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