Storytelling creates a social bond between and among teller and audience members. Observers of the tale-telling tradition now realize that the communication achieved between storyteller and audience goes well beyond entertainment. Storytelling and traditional speech patterns have been of special interest to folklorists and linguists as well as to writers. This varied and dynamic swapping of oral forms has provided an important creative environment for Appalachia’s many poets and novelists. Sermons and prayers delivered in traditional mountain churches often reflect distinctive rhetorical styles. Word games, riddles, and counting and alphabet rhymes enhance both verbal and “critical thinking” skills. Along with singing and storytelling sessions, the school yard, workplace, barber shop, bar, local convenience store, and street offer many opportunities to hone one’s riddling, word play, proverb, and joke-telling skills. The often-noted verbal skills of the mountain people were well cultivated. The following section on storytelling is taken from the chapter “Appalachian Folklife” by Deborah Thompson and Irene Moser, in A Handbook to Appalachia. Edited by Radford University scholars Grace Toney Edwards, JoAnn Asbury, and Ricky Cox, the Handbook was designed to “reflect the thinking and input of as many Appalachian scholars as possible, that it be written in a prose style and layout appropriate for, and appealing to, a diverse audience, most of whom are not academics that it include sources and resources for those who wish to know and do more and that it be affordable to institutions and individuals.” This fine volume does all of these things, and should be required reading for anyone interested in Appalachia. Finally, it would need to cover cultural matters, such as music, folklife, literature, and visual arts.Ī Handbook to Appalachia: An Introduction to the Region is the first volume to adequately address all these issues. It would also need to address education, economic matters, politics, activism, religion, and health care. Such a book would need to include sections on history, natural resources, and the diverse backgrounds of the people in Appalachia. One of the difficulties facing Appalachian Studies has always been the lack of a good, single volume that would examine the multitude of issues and topics that, taken as a whole, would provide a good introduction to Appalachia.
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