[Discussion] CFP: Communal Change vs. Communal Preservation: The Storyteller as Social Bricoleur (6/15/05; 10/28/05-10/29/05)

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

2005 Southern Crossroads Storytelling Conference

October 28th & 29th

Communal Change vs. Communal Preservation:
The Storyteller as Social Bricoleur

Jointly presented by LSU at Alexandria and the CENLA Storyteller's Guild

Is there a socially regenerative function to storytelling? How might
storytellers serve the community even within a pragmatic social milieu
often consciously indifferent to their existence? How do storytellers
sometimes use culturally-subversive elements in their stories in order
to have regenerative effect on stagnated social conventions? How do they
simultaneously maintain any degree of psychic protection for themselves?
  Essentially, the conference hopes to explore how storytellers are like
pilot fish, clinging close enough to clean the body of culture of its
outmoded social paradigms and yet manage to stay marginal enough to the
sonar of conscious social perception and convention to be left alone and
so succeed in their work.

There will be two conference presentation panels on Friday afternoon
(see below for panel topics) and a Friday evening banquet with a keynote
speaker. On Saturday morning the Central Louisiana Storyteller's Guild
will conduct storytelling workshops (specific topics to be decided).
There will be two more academic panels on Saturday afternoon (topics
below) and on Saturday evening we are proud to end the conference with a
program of Louisiana stories, food, music, and dance.

Friday's panels and paper ideas (sub-listed) are:
The Rhetoric of Storytelling-(1:00-2:30)
Considering context and audience
Utilizing the unreliable narrator
Private vs. Public Storytelling-(3:00-4:30)
Giving "voice" to silenced groups
Performance: the body and enchantment

Saturday's panels and paper ideas are:
Orality-(1:00-2:30)
Preserving the "Life" of Story: is story writing story killing?
The Bricolage of Telling: the social place & function of the storyteller
Literacy-(3:00-4:30)
The relationship between oral and written narrative forms
Blogging Toward Bethlehem: the impact of the Internet on our species-old
	need for narrative

The conference will occur at the Holiday Inn in downtown Alexandria,
Louisiana and on the campus of Louisiana State University at Alexandria.
Alexandria is in the very center of the Bayou State and is considered
the very "crossroads" of the various and unique cultures of both
Louisiana and the South. The Alexandria airport has regular service
between several major airports (Houston, Atlanta, and Memphis). The
Holiday Inn and other area hotels have shuttle service to and from the
airport, but car rentals are also available.

Submit a 250-word abstract by e-mail attachment to Dr. Owen Elmore at
oelmore@lsua.edu <mailto:oelmore@lsua.edu> . (.doc, .wpd, and .rtf
formats are acceptable.) The abstract submission deadline is June 15th,
2005.



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