Performing narratives: telling the story of theory

Abstract

This article explores the inclusion of narrative and performance theory and practice in a communication studies classroom. In using their own classroom discourse as a running narrative, students apply theoretical narratives in exploring a complex Middle East story. They deconstruct, reconstruct, and apply theoretical principles to practice using a singular sociocultural context. Stressing the importance of performing stories helps students appreciate new possibilities for thought and action. By emphasizing the performance of narratives, students experience and develop an appreciation for multiple, even contradictory, meanings within narratives and are better able to recognize moments of shifting positionality within a story.

Notes

* Communication Studies, Indiana University–Purdue University, Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA, email: [email protected]

• Gila: [Standing not far from Lena, is a stranger to her, in front of Lena's destroyed house.] I do not understand why they persist in this destruction of houses. It is a violation of the “open fire regulations” of the Israeli army. Do they know that we are all innocent victims of the same tragedy no matter who our people are?

• Lena: [Stepping back from Gila. Sneering with tears.] You are one of them. This is what Israel means when it says it is defending itself. You destroy our life. You take no thought for our provisions or for our lives and only [instead] for conquering what isn't yours.

• Gila: You clump us all together.

• Lena: You are all the same. All my life [there] has been violence because of you, the Israeli people.

• Gila: All my life there has been unrest because of you the Palestinian people. We try to serve our God, and violence ensues. We die. [Silence]

• Lena: [Crying]

• Gila: I am an Israeli. I hold fast to my beliefs. But I am here to feel your anguish with you … as another woman who is on the losing end of all this destruction. I am with a group that was on its way here to stop this demolition. We were too late. [A tear trickles down her cheek.]

• Lena: [Steps towards Gila.] They took my home.

• Gila: I know. It is senseless. It violates not only military law, but also the law of human rights—all that is good and right in the world. [Crying.] I am sorry, so sorry!

• Lena: Why do you come here? Why!?

• Gila: Because I feel also!

• Lena: [Sobbing.] What am I to do?

•  [Gila and Lena embrace]

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stuart M. Schrader *

* Communication Studies, Indiana University–Purdue University, Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA, email: [email protected]