Introduction Story Streams: Stories and their Tellers

Abstract

It is easy to begin with a story. History, mythology, legend, religion, all begin with stories. On the one hand we tend to think of a story as an artefact, a narrative contained within a book that we can pick up and read, or a digital file we can replay on a screen. On the other hand we also know that the notion of story as a closed unity has been long challenged by stories that cycle through space and time, whether they be ancient tales reworked or digitally enhanced hypertext narratives with multiple coexistent threads. We also tend to think of stories as something separate from ourselves, that we consume at will, for entertainment or edification. But, whether we know it or not, stories are swirling around us and even through us as we play out narratives of identity and community, as we continually renegotiate our place in the world.

The divine art is the story. In the beginning was the story.

(Dinesen, 33)