Week 6: Storytelling and Influence
6.0 Storytelling as an Influential Act
Objective(s): to practice rhetorical analysis; to demonstrate storytelling as an influential activity designed to describe, persuade and express power
Orientation
Stories involve subjects, lived or imagined; they also represent subjects, lived or imagined, according to certain sociopolitical forces. Storytelling positions subjects in relationship to subjects, objects, systems, infrastructure, ideologies, etc.; it construes relationships among subjects featured in the story from the lived experiences of storytellers whose relationship to their subjects, objects, systems, and ideologies are contingent upon their own positionality; it distributes power by animating subjects, subduing objects, interacting with systems, affirming or denying ideologies; it functions epistemically to configure the imaginative capacity of readers; it functions politically to represent inaccessible or unlived life experiences to readers. Thus, the act of storytelling is not simply aesthetic or value-neutral but formative and influential.
Premise
The relationship of storytellers to their subjects, object, and systems is an under-examined part of the representation process.
Purpose
The purpose of this exercise is to discuss the positionality of storytellers in two ways, in relationship to their subjects and socio-politically.
Preparation
Students review an early 90s interview [Chen [1992] Speaking Nearby-Interview with Minh-Ha] with documentarian, Trinh Minh-ha, as she discusses her positionality as a filmmaker.
Protocol
- In project groups, define “speaking nearby” according to your reading of Trinh’s essay and differentiate it from at least three other prepositions (e.g., speaking for; speaking with; etc.).
- Next, apply “speaking nearby” to various rhetorical situations according to one’s discipline, options could include: an image, a text, a dataset as a way to describe the relationship of the storyteller/photographer/data collector to their subjects/data.
- Ask one member from each group to share one insight from their group analysis (during steps 1-2).
- Lastly, invite the whole class to discuss to positionality of storytellers by addressing the following questions:
- What does it mean to “speak nearby” in the context of our course projects? How do we position our projects “nearby” its subjects?
- Based on my research, how have writers historically positioned themselves in relationship to their subject (i.e., near, for, to, another preposition, etc.)?
- According to our field, discipline, or community, what position have we taken in relationship to our subjects (i.e., for, with, etc.)?
- What affordances and limitations have these configurations engendered?
- How is the positionality adopted to storytellers related to anti-racism, racism, and structural racism?
Premise
It is important for students to have multiple opportunities to practice a skill, especially if that skill is integral to a project or part of a later assessment. The I-We-You approach provides students with multiple access points for skill development. In this case, the skill is rhetorical analysis.
Purpose
The purpose of this exercise is to practice rhetorical analysis and, secondly, to underscore that stories are sites of persuasion enacted by people with particular but limited experiences (i.e., not universal).
Preparation
Present three short readings (or, media, clips, etc.) relevant to the course subject-matter to analyze rhetorically (i.e., in addition to “content,” or what the story is about), drawing attention to the choices its writers or producers have made, strategies they employ, metaphors they leverage, etc. The readings may be nominated or crowdsourced by students, or selected by instructors/GSIs.
Protocol
The activity has three rounds.
- The first round (“I”), the instructor models rhetorical analysis by analyzing one of the three essays to the whole class.
- The second round (“we”), the whole class analyzes the second document, while the instructor provides helpful prompts and guidance if necessary.
- The third round (“you”), students rhetorically analyze the remaining essay individually or in project groups.
Premise
Essays, articles, and stories are often read for content, but their formatting and style have just as much to say and, more importantly, mobilize content into representations. Close reading often assumes cultural training and experience students may not have. Attending to style is a way to open essays up for greater accessibility. Further, it repositions students as receptive readers to interactive critics.
Purpose
The purpose of this exercise is to identify structural patterns in published and peer-reviewed stories to identify applicable tactics and strategies for students. The activity centers on the question: how do published writers’ tell stories?
Preparation
Students crowdsource relevantly interesting articles. Instructors may specify genre if necessary. Once compiled, project groups select one essay to reverse-engineer and then read that essay.
Protocol
After reading an essay, students generate a blueprint or structural outline for it. Several approaches include the following:
- Generate a possible outline the writer used to develop their story.
- Section Analysis. Students describe how each section (or paragraph) functions on its own and in relationship to the essay as a whole.
- Tactical Analysis. Identify prominent formal tactics and authorial choices
- Choices: What choices do you get to make as a storyteller? What limitations – ethical, embodied, otherwise—are there?
- Negotiation: How do you tell a story from a position of limited agency?
Personal Reflection
- Imitation. As storytellers, what storytelling moves do you want to imitate, innovate, and/or eliminate?
- Impact. What impact do you want on your audience? What expectations might they have? What tactics/strategies from the writers in your research set can you emulate, innovate, or steal?
Premise
Most projects entail visuals, or ask students to use images; seldom do students receive training about how to select images, how to analyze visual culture, or how visual representations affirm structural racism.
Purpose
The purpose of this exercise is to apply rhetorical analysis to aspects of visual culture, such as images, to examine how these tell “stories.”
Preparation
Students review essays on visual culture (featured in appendix) that provide a basic schema for medium-specific analysis (i.e., how interpreting images differ from texts). Students crowdsource relevant and compelling images, memes, sculptures, clips, feeds, etc. centered on the course theme.
Protocol
The instructor selects one image from the crowdsourced pool to identify its formal and compositional aspects. Considerations may include: point of view; vanishing point; color palate; filters; etc. Once completed, the instructor shifts discussion to rhetorical analysis of the image by considering the following questions:
- What effect does these components yield together?
- What story do they tell?
- How do these stories interact with the prose?
Practice in groups.