Texturing the narrative paradigm: Folklore and communication

Although communication theory is often informed by other disciplines, scholarly connections with folklore have been few. As communication scholars become increasingly interested in narrative as a topic of study for the future, it seems important to return to the past: To folklore, and to Walter Fisher's work in communication that yielded the narrative paradigm. This paper suggests ways in which complementary understandings of narrative in folklore and in Fisher's paradigm could coinform each other and thereby enrich both disciplines. Many ideas about communication and the narrative paradigm can be empirically strengthened by the work of folklore scholars. At the same time, communication scholarship informs folklore's attempts to merge aesthetic and social processes in folklore and encouraging the conversation between disciplines to continue.

Key concepts:

• narrative paradigm
• folklore
• performance
• communication
• storytelling