Oral storytellers are increasingly invited to help make the past relevant to contemporary life. Yet, there have been few discussions of how storytellers’ experiences of performing stories impact their engagement with and representation of the past. In 2019, I sought to answer this question with help from storytellers in Jonesborough, Tennessee, the home of America’s National Storytelling Festival.
This research project informed my Masters dissertation in the Department of Anthropology at University College London. My sincere thanks go to storytellers and staff at the International Storytelling Centre, Jonesborough Storytellers Guild, and Jonesborough Yarn Exchange for generously contributing to this research.
