Abstract
This workshop describes an inclusive storytelling project of the story of Joseph (from the book of Genesis chapters 37-45), using language from the King James Version of the Bible, that has been developed in a school for children with learning disabilities and physical disabilities. Although the starting point of the project was the development of storytelling activities for children and teenagers in a special school, the aim of the project is to develop inclusive storytelling that can be used anywhere and enjoyed by everyone, irrespective of disability.
The workshop will include a discussion of the issues raised by the project, such as inclusion and access to literature, and a demonstration of the story of Joseph, as well as other examples of inclusive storytelling including 'A Christmas Carol' (Park, 1998) 'Cinderella' (Park, 1999) and 'Beowulf (in press) all of which are being used in special and mainstream schools.
References
Park, K. (1998) Dickens For All: Inclusive
Approaches to Literature and Communication with People with Severe and Profound
Learning Disabilities. British Journal of Special Education, 25, 3, 114-118.
Park, K. (1990) Storytelling with People with Sensory Impairments and
Additional Disabilities. The SLD Experience, 23, 17-20.
Sense (The National Deafblind Rubella Association) is a national voluntary organization that works and campaigns with and for people who have a sensory disability, in particular with people who have a combined impairment of vision and hearing. Sense provides advice, support, information and services for individual people, their families and carers, as well as teachers and school staff. Inclusive storytelling is the name given to storytelling activities designed to include individuals with multi-sensory impairments and severe and profound learning disabilities with their various peer groups. The storytelling activities are now being used with people of all ages, irrespective of disability; they are easy to use and do not require any special equipment or knowledge of drama and literature.
Storytelling
'Meat of the Tongue', a Swahili story from Angela Carter's collection of fairy tales (Carter, 1991), tells of a sultan whose unhappy wife grows leaner and more listless every day. The sultan sees a poor man whose wife is healthy and happy, and he asks the poor man his secret. 'Very simple' answers the poor man, 'I feed her meat of the tongue.' The sultan immediately orders the butcher to buy the tongues of all the slaughtered animals of the town, and feeds them to his wife. The queen gets even more thin and poorly. The sultan then orders the poor man to exchange wives. Once in the palace, the poor man's wife grows thin and pale. The final part of the story goes as follows:
'The poor man, after coming home at night, would greet his new (royal) wife, tell her about the things he had seen, especially the funny things, and then told her stories which made her shriek with laughter. Next he would take his banjo and sing her songs, of which he knew a great many. Until late at night he would play with her and amuse her. And lo! the queen grew fat in a few weeks, beautiful to look at, and her skin was shining and taut, like a young girl's skin. And she was smiling all day, remembering the many funny things her new husband had told her. When the sultan called her back she refused to come. So the sultan came to fetch her, and found her all changed and happy. He asked her what the poor man had done to her, and she told him. Then he understood the meaning of meat of the tongue' (Carter, 1991, p 215).
Storytelling is a vital ingredient of human experience. But if this is so, how can we do storytelling with people who have sensory impairments and additional disabilities ? Why should we bother? Jean Ware provides an answer when she suggests that, in choosing activities for people with profound and multiple learning disabilities, our aim should be 'to enable the child to participate in those experiences which are uniquely human' (Ware, 1994, p72). Storytelling may be one of these uniquely human experiences. Whether it is legend, myth, folk tale, fairy story, poem, novel, film or play, the principle is the same: everyone everywhere enjoys stories. According the story 'Meat of the Tongue', we all need them. Angela Carter suggests that 'For most of human history, 'literature', both fiction and poetry, has been narrated, not written - heard, not read' (Carter, 1991, p ix). The literature of fiction and poetry from around the world has existed in oral form for many thousands of years, long before the development of comparatively recent forms: writing, printing, radio, TV, cinema and internet. The oral narration of stories was, and often still is, a social event where the story is sung, spoken or chanted, or in other words, performed. Storytelling is far more important than reading and writing: a starting point for literature may therefore be in the performing of stories.
Performing stories
'Drama', suggested W.H.Auden, 'began as the act of a whole community. Ideally there would be no spectators' (Auden, 1977, p273). 'Kvad-dansen' is a phrase derived from old Norse words 'kvad' meaning 'step' and 'dansen' -'dances' - which refers to 'step dance', a traditional style of storytelling used in Scandinavia (Andersen, 1999). Traditionally, the storyteller stands in the middle of the circle reciting the story while the encircling participants respond with a chorus every third or fourth line. This method is still used in some Scandinavian communities, and in particular the Faroe Islands. Auden describes the close relationship between this style of community storytelling and poetry: '...imagine a circle of people dancing: the circle revolves and comes back to its starting place; at each revolution the set of movements is repeated. When words move in this kind of repeated pattern, we call the effect of the movement in our minds the metre. Words arranged in metre are verse' (Auden, 1977, p307). T.S. Eliot evokes a similar image in his poem 'East Coker':
(Eliot, 1974, p24)
In 1855 the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow read a translation of the Finnish epic 'The Kalevala', and was inspired by its pounding trochaic tetrameter to write his poem 'Hiawatha', using the same metre:
and so on. Like its inspiration, The Kalevala, this is a poem for reading aloud: for performance and participation. The version of the story of Joseph from Genesis 37-45 (using the language of the King James Bible) is just one example of inclusive storytelling that uses this same metre (with a fourth line of six beats as the response) to provide the rhythm for the step dance. It uses a call and response technique - a rhythmic exchange of commentary between the storyteller and the story participants. This is the first of the six sections, with the first and second verse indicating the rhythm by bold type:
In the Land of Canaan
In the Land of Canaan
In the Land of Canaan
In the Land of Canaan
In the Land of Canaan
In the Land of Canaan
In the Land of Canaan
These methods have also been used to adapt a number of poems, including Beowulf, in a literal translation from the Old English which retains a flavour of the original through the characteristic compound nouns. Performed as a step dance, the recital of Beowulf is extremely evocative, and tells how the man-eating monster Grendel is finally killed by the hero Beowulf. Here are three verses (not in sequence) as an example:
Grendel shadow-walker
Grendel shadow-walker
Grendel shadow-walker
Grendel shadow-walker
Other sources for inclusive storytelling, using a variety of different methods, include stories from Homer, Shakespeare and Dickens, and are listed in the resources section. Forthcoming projects include workshops on 'Macbeth in Mind' - a version of Shakespeare's story that explores issues of theory of mind and learning disabilities (Grove, N. and Park, K. Macbeth in Mind. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, from October 2000) to be performed at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre later this year, and A millenium of poetry - six poems, one from each of the 10th, 13th, 15th, 17th, 18th and 20th centuries. The series starts with an extract, in a literal translation from the Old English, from Beowulf; A Lyke-Wake Dirge; Swarte-smeked smethes (performed in Middle English); the story of Joseph from the book of Genesis; an extract from 'Kubla Khan' by Coleridge; and an extract from 'Bone Dreams' by Seamus Heaney.
Resources: Inclusive Storytelling:
Odyssey Now A re-telling, in multisensory interactive drama games, of Homer's story of Odysseus and his long journey home. In Grove, N. and Park, K. (1996) Odyssey Now. London: Jessica Kingsley.
A Christmas Carol The short story by Charles Dickens. In Park, K. (1998) Dickens For All: Inclusive Approaches to Literature for Children with Severe and Profound Learning Disabilities. British Journal of Special Education, 25, 3, 114-118.
Red Riding Hood A version of the story as told by the brothers Grimm, in three drama games. In Park, K. (1998) Theory of Mind and Drama Games. The SLD Experience, 22, 2-5
Cinderella and A Christmas Carol A pantomime-style version of the original story by the Grimm brothers, and another version of the Dickens story. In Park, K. (1999) Storytelling with People with Sensory Impairments and Additional Disabilities. The SLD Experience, 23, 17-21.
Romeo and Juliet Two versions of Shakespeare's famous love story. In Grove, N. and Park, K. (1999) Romeo and Juliet: A Multisensory Approach. London: BagBooks.
Riverrun and pricking thumbs Two poetry workshops including poetry by T.S.Eliot, James Joyce and William Shakespeare. In Park, K. (1999) Riverrun and pricking thumbs. The SLD Experience, 25, 11-13.
The resonance board A description of the uses of a resonance board, including how it is being used in poetry workshops with young adults with multisensory impairments. The SLD Experience, 26,
Macbeth in Mind (Grove, N. and Park, K) Social Cognition through Drama and Literature for People with Learning Disability: Macbeth in Mind. London: Jessica Kingsley
Bibliography
Andersen, P. (1999) Personal communication
Auden, W.H. (1977) The English Auden. London: Faber and Faber.
Carter, A. (1991) The Virago Book of Fairy Tales. London: Virago Press
Eliot, T.S. (1974) Four Quartets. London: Faber and Faber.
Ware, J. (1994) The Education of Children with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties. London: David Fulton.
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