Storytelling may refer literally to the stories one tells or has been told, especially in childhood. It may refer more specifically to cultures and communities with traditions of oral literature and history: storytelling as an art and didactic form, and also a form of collective memory. Yet storytelling also relates more broadly to the idea of  representation and to the potential for—or degree of—fiction in any text or image. There are stories embedded in almost any text: a historical account, a geographic map, an autobiography or memoir, investigative journalism, a visual/image-based advertisement, or a web site. One might think about the story element as something that undermines the authority and veracity of a text, and underscoring its fictionality instead. On the other hand, one might choose to legitimize storytelling as an inevitable and sometimes wonderful way of producing meaning.  

In Beyond Borders:  See Amy Tan, "Mothertongue"; Anna Deavere Smith, "Fires in the Mirror"; Art Spiegelman, "MAUS"; Tim O'Brien, "Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong"; and Image 6, "Black Pantheon," "Black Pantheon Fades, and "Almost Invisible Black Pantheon."

In Beyond Borders Online:  See Web Research Activities, "The Shape of Stories: Digital Storytelling, Hypertext Poetry, and New Multimedia Expressions."

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