Background

Storytelling is an innate part of human nature, and always has been - from the stories told around the campfires of our earliest ancestors, to the TV shows and movies that our broadcast into the very comfort of living rooms today, telling, and listening to stories, is an important part of what makes us human. The span of time over which human storytelling has evolved is also indicative of the activity’s inherent diversity - storytelling takes many forms, with a range of different motivations, mediums, and meanings. For example, storytelling encompasses everything from ancient epics that constitute cultural landmarks, such as India’s Ramayan and Mahabharat, to the fairy tales and bedtime stories recited to us by our family members when we were children. There are many different ways to tell stories as well - ranging from folk tales handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth, to the mass production of modern media, such as novels, comic books, TV shows, or movies. 

However, not all forms of storytelling are treated equally - because storytelling is inextricably tied to human institutions, such as culture, identity, and family, it is also subject to the same power structures that characterize and shape our societies. Forms of storytelling that are seen as more associated with certain groups of people, especially those communities that have been historically marginalized, discriminated against, or erased, are very often under threat. Take, for example, the oral tradition of storytelling - while this medium constitutes the universal bedrock of storytelling everywhere, modernity has increasingly relegated it to the margins of the mainstream. This ‘subaltern’ medium, unsurprisingly, tends to be an important means of cultural transmission for demographics such as tribal and indigenous communities, those living in rural areas, women, and other groups of people who have been systematically excluded as stakeholders in a modern, emergent landscape of narrative-making. In a rapidly globalizing world that moves every closer towards homogeneity, these forms of storytelling are at risk of being forgotten - this would represent a truly tragic loss to the common heritage of humankind.