Who, or What, Should be a Performer in the Performance Paradigm

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.