Published: 2003
ISBN: 978-1-876682-49-1
Pages: xiv+314
Imprint: Post Pressed
Children appear to know the importance of storytelling as if by instinct. From a very early age their play takes the form of story; sometimes they term their story play 'pretend.' ...
They delight in using what comes to hand; they are small bricoleurs who make barbecues or bowls out of sticks of wood, or who fashion snowballs that make noise and need to be hushed, or who build tents or caves with a blanket...
Mallan's book is an important contribution to our understanding of how story works and of how storytelling functions as a social, political, and educative activity.
Professor Roderick McGillis
University of Calgary, Canada
...an excellent thesis, written with critical aplomb and insight...
Professor Richard Andrews
Middlesex University
Mallan manages to work through difficult theory, methodology and text analysis in ways that are sophisticated, conceptually elegant, and above all, original.
Associate Professor Nola Alloway
James Cook University
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
List of figures
Chapter One: Story - Schooling and Performance
Chapter Two: Storytelling as Cultural Practice
Chapter Three: Discourses Framing Research on Children's Storytelling
Chapter Four: Ways of Reading the Performing Body
Chapter Five: The Study
Chapter Six: Picture Stories
Chapter Seven: Familial Tales
Chapter Eight: Body Politics
Chapter Nine: Re/framing the Performing Body
Chapter Ten: New Tales for New Times
Appendix A - Series Told in Two Workshops
Appendix B - Letters Seeking Consent
Appendix C - Overview of Workshops
Appendix D - Sample Page from Field Journal
Appendix E - Mapping of a Storyplay
Appendix F - Pictures Used in Children's Stories
References - References and Select Bibliography
Index