Sharing stories: Transforming lives

55 Pages·2010·1.1 MB·English

by  Dr. Michael Murray

Sharing stories: Transforming lives
Counselling and Transformation
4th Annual Keele University Counselling Conference
26th- 28th March 2010
Michael Murray
The prologue
• Performance of
Canterbury Tales by
Northern Broadsides at
New Vic Theatre
• Enthusiastic reception
• Integral role of narrative
in everyday life
• Performative nature of
narrative
The writer
• Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400)
• Wrote the tales in parts
• Work was unfinished
• Included details from different
sources including references to
the author
• Like life itself, it was
accumulative and unpredictable
– Peter Ackroyd
Canterbury Tales
• Tales told by group of 28
pilgrims as they make their
way from Southwark to
Canterbury
– … to Canterbury they wende
The holy blissful martir for to seke
– And made forward erly for to ryse,
To take oure wey ther as I yow devyse
• All agreed to tell a tale and
the best was would receive a
meal paid by the others
– The best sentence and moost solaas
Big tale
• Big narrative is that of the
pilgrimage
• It is a metaphor for the journey
to the new Jerusalem
• Life is seen as a pilgrimage
– This world nys but a thurghfare ful
of wo
And we been pilgrymes, passynge
to and fro
Little tales
• Within it there are many small
stories – 24 tales in all
• Each tale is shared with the others
• These tales are drawn from a
variety of classic, religious and
other sources
The Wife of Bath’s Tale
• Through a variety of amusing
anecdotes considers the role of
women in marriage
– Experience, though noon auctorittee
Were in this world, is right ynogh for
me
To speke of wo that is in mariage
• Her experiences with five husbands
• Men have to pleasure their wives
and wives have to keep control of
their husbands
The Miller’s Tale
• Tale of a young woman who is
married to an old man
• She develops relationship with
young man
• Tale is full of bawdy humour
– Derk was the nyght as pich,
or as the cole,
And at the wyndow out she
putte hir hole
David Salle
The Millers Tale
Different types of tale
• Smaller tales
– Tales as entertainment
– Moral tales on the role of
women
– Tales about how things are
not what they seem
• Bigger tale
– Life as a journey to a
heavenly paradise
– Life as being full of woe
– Need for entertainment
– Stories as source of moral
truths
General principles
• Human’s view the world in
the form of narratives
• Narratives are organised
sequences of events
• Events occur in time
• Narrative provides an
understanding of how
events are linked