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Part III. Digital Media and Storytelling in Research ] 99
of an era as well as their structure, genre, and media with a special focus on
the status of narratives; (2) Places and society, in which individual, local and
regional narratives are examined by the researcher alongside the speaker,
rememberer and interpreter communities. The legitimacy of the story within
a community is also a relevant topic, with researchers focusing on stories that
are kept and told within a community; And (3) The Functions and Actors of
Storytelling, in which the different situations and values of storytelling and
the narrative identity of the storyteller can be explored, as the social act of
storytelling is linked to typical life situations (family gatherings, joint work,
and travel). Keszeg views the purpose of storytelling as entertainment, with
storytellers and receivers sharing time together and passing on idioms,
behaviors and story structures learned from their ancestors. Storytelling also
takes gender roles into account, with different stories for men, women and
children. The storyteller tells the story with a distinctive voice and posture,
sometimes even singing.
Every age has its own dedicated storytellers, whether they are called
magicians, storytellers, bards or even stand-up comedians. In addition to the
well-researched narrative structures and sub-genres of oral tales, the biography
of the storyteller, his or her performance style and the social conditions of
storytelling are also areas of interest for ethnographic research. The narratives
of different periods are explored through source analysis embedded in the
historical research paradigm. Biographical and autobiographical narratives
reveal the values and worldviews of different periods among local communities,
as well as information about specific regions and environments.
The function of storytelling can also be a subject of research. All communal
storytelling follows a certain set of rules. The spread of stories within a family
or small local community is natural among members of a group. Everyday
storytelling is less conventional, as the narrator and the recipient can be of
any gender, or age, and the storytelling can be spontaneous or organized.
Traditionally, situations such as family conversations and shared work talk
fall into this category. Ritual, also known as festive performances, however, are
norm-bound. They are scripted and there are behavioral norms for narration
and reception. In religious-magical storytelling, the narrative has a healing,
anti-malignant role, and its performance is time- and situation-bound. Formal
storytelling, on the other hand, is typically linked to the normative world of
education, politics, and law-making (Keszeg, 2011, pp. 67-68).
Edward M. Bruner, as a representative of interpretative anthropology,
used the narrative approach in his ethnographic research and considered
narrative dialogue as the basis for meaning-making. In this approach, the
interpretations and storytelling of the participants and the researcher are
not independent of each other, and the researcher’s meaning-making itself
is expressed in the temporal linearity and sequential architecture of the
narrative structure (Bruner, E. M., 1986).