School was a struggle for me. Science, history, literature, geography – you name the subject I struggled. The only subject I did well in was math. I loved theorems. They were logical and there was structure to it. So, when I signed up for fact-based storytelling, I was having flashbacks to history class in school and having to memorize facts that I could not relate to. I should have known better; this was storytelling.
Stories like theorems have structure and sequence and I found myself using the well-known Five Ps story structures to craft my fact-based story. Then I read ‘The Art of the Tale: Story-Telling and History Teaching’ by David Kennedy. While reading this I found myself drawing a parallel between the five Cs in addition to the setting that make a good historical story; Characterization, Connections, Conflict, Change, and Catharsis, and Donald Davis/LynnAnn Wojciechowicz, Five Ps of storytelling; People, Place, Problem, Progress, and Point.
People - Characterization
The first comparison of Characterization and People is quite straightforward. Most of our history is about people. Even when the focus of our fact-based story is a particular event in history, like the Civil Rights movement, the Great Depression, or the Suffrage movement, there are characters who play a role in making the story move forward.
Place - (Context)
David Kennedy in his article has setting of the story in addition to the five Cs. To keep with the iteration of using the letter C I would suggest Context. Where and when the story took place gives cultural and social context to the story that may not have to be explicitly described in the story.
Problem - Conflict
Then of course there is the Conflict or Problem. Again, an easy comparison. The word conflict is used interchangeably with problem when crafting a story. Without conflict we would not have history.
Progress - Catharsis/Change
Kennedy draws the distinction between stories and history in that stories have a happy ending, and a historical narrative may not end in favor of the character that the listener is rooting for. I believe he has misunderstood the meaning of what we storytellers consider Progress in the story structure. Progress means change and bringing the story to a satisfying end. Even though the story may start with "Once upon a time" it doesn't always end with "happily ever after". Storytellers see that so often in myths. When Hades kidnaps Persephone the story doesn’t end with Persephone living happily ever after with Demeter, her mother. But knowing that mother and daughter will be together for half the year brings catharsis to the listeners and resolves the problem.
Point - Connection
This was the hardest comparison for me but after reading again what Kennedy meant by connection it was quite simple to see how that relates to the point of the story. Kennedy in his article states that there are two ways he considers connection. The first is the connection of the character’s story in context to what is happening in history and the second is the connection of characters with other characters in the story. How often have we as storytellers have asked ourselves, “Why do I want to tell this story?” It is the connection we have to the character, the event or how the characters relate to each other is what makes us want to tell the story. In other words, it is the point of the story that compels us to tell it.
Thomas Carlyle a Scottish historian said, “The history of the world is but the biography of great men.” I would add to this “and women.”
I wonder if I would have enjoyed history as much as I enjoyed math if David Kennedy had been my history teacher.
(The picture in the blog is an open-source picture from pixaby.)
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