Kathleen Roberts is adding to the narrative paradigm by
using elements from the performance paradigm. It was my understanding from the
reading that performers are people and not books, and the written account
doesn’t hold the same weight as the spoken word when dealing with folklore. I
think books, movies, and other mediums should be considered performers. While
this is not traditionally how folklore was disseminated in the past, other mediums
can serve the same functions as the individual performer.
The Bible is an example of a book that would count as an
individual performer. One of the standards is “individuals must appropriate and
continue to use the lore. Specifically, they must continue to tell the
narrative, or at least return to the initial performer to hear it retold” pg
135. Individuals have done a good job of appropriating and continuing to use
the lore of the Bible, the lore continues to be retold, and people go back to
the Bible to be retold the narrative. Roberts continues by acknowledging, “Any
individual is a performer who communicates folklore to others” pg 135. The
Bible is an individual communicating folklore to others and people return to
the Bible to be retold this folklore.
Roberts (pg 135) also talks about collaborative expectancy
and how the audience is bound to the performer. The Bible is collaborative with
the audience; they interpret the meanings and tell the lore in a distinctive
way. A prime example of this would be in Genesis and the creation of earth,
man, and animals. There are some
branches of Christianity that believe the earth was created in five 24-hour
earth days and everything happened word for word. On the other end of the
spectrum there are Christens that believe in evolution and take the five days
interpretation very loosely, because no one knows how long five days is to God.
Interpretations of Genesis and the creation of earth and man happen on a
spectrum; there are a number of different beliefs falling between the two
examples above. The audience is a collaborator with the Bible and the lore
being told.
Another important point brought up by Roberts is how the
individual performer is “stepping up to the plate in the process of rhetorical
efficiency for [the] narrative, taking responsibility for the expressive
activates that bind the group together” pg 135. The Bible binds groups together
and even the same Bible, through interaction with the audience, can distinguish
different types of Christens: Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists,
Baptists, etc.
The Bible is written folklore acting as an individual
performer. While this is only one example, it does show different mediums can
act as individual performers. This should be taken into account when adding the
performances paradigm to the narrative paradigm, another expansion to add to
the understanding of the narrative paradigm.
Roberts, K. G. (2004). Texturing the narrative paradigm: Folklore and communication. Communication Quarterly, 52(2), 129-142.
