Panel: "I Didn't Say That-You Said That!": Family Stories as Encounters with "Otherness"
Location
Beaman A&B
Presentation Type
Panel Discussion
Start Date
26-9-2013 3:00 PM
Description
In scholarship analyzing family folklore, much is made of the unifying function that often-repeated family stories serve for their tellers and listeners. At the same time, however, it can be argued that family stories also serve as “encounters with otherness.” In narrating our accounts of experiences we have shared with our family members, we articulate our own perceptions of ourselves, our notions of our roles in our families, and our understandings of the people to whom we are related; in this process, we implicitly express our families’ common values, attitudes and beliefs. But in gauging the reactions of our audiences to those stories and in listening to other family members’ tales of the same or similar events, we encounter sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant differences in our views of ourselves and each other; we can thus see how family members differ from one other as well as how they are alike. This panel will explore how family stories forge bonds among family members but also how they illuminate tensions in family members’ relationships and the evolutions our conceptions of our families undergo over time.
Recommended Citation
Cox, Cynthia; Hume, Stacey; Mendez, Alicia; and Wellman, Misty, "Panel: "I Didn't Say That-You Said That!": Family Stories as Encounters with "Otherness"" (2013). Humanities Symposium. 10.
https://repository.belmont.edu/humanities_symposium/2013/2013/10
Panel: "I Didn't Say That-You Said That!": Family Stories as Encounters with "Otherness"
Beaman A&B
In scholarship analyzing family folklore, much is made of the unifying function that often-repeated family stories serve for their tellers and listeners. At the same time, however, it can be argued that family stories also serve as “encounters with otherness.” In narrating our accounts of experiences we have shared with our family members, we articulate our own perceptions of ourselves, our notions of our roles in our families, and our understandings of the people to whom we are related; in this process, we implicitly express our families’ common values, attitudes and beliefs. But in gauging the reactions of our audiences to those stories and in listening to other family members’ tales of the same or similar events, we encounter sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant differences in our views of ourselves and each other; we can thus see how family members differ from one other as well as how they are alike. This panel will explore how family stories forge bonds among family members but also how they illuminate tensions in family members’ relationships and the evolutions our conceptions of our families undergo over time.
Comments
Convocation Credit: Academic Lecture