There are so many new ways of telling a story — virtual reality, transmedia, gaming — the technological and creative possibilities are endless. While these experimental storytelling methods can add richness to an experience, the core of the story is often overlooked. Instead of applying technology for its wow factor, the power of innovation is truly evident when it serves the story itself.
I have taken a step forward in my thesis research by going back to the basics of storytelling.
If I am going to tell an authentic version of my grandmother’s story, I am going to tell it in the way that an Iraqi Jewish immigrant would. In the Jewish tradition, stories are shared orally around a table with food. Peninnah Schram reminds us that “oral tradition is central to the reinforcement and transmission of Jewish values…accumulated folklore, legends, sayings, and customs of the Jewish People that are handed down by word of mouth”(p.34). While the written laws of the Bible are vital to preserving Jewish culture, the connection they foster between the reader and the listener is inhibited by the rigidity of pronunciation and inflection at which each word is meant to be spoken. There is less room for interpretation, interaction and investigation.
The difference in experience between oral and written law is also reflected in the language itself, where oral is typically associated with Yiddish and written with Hebrew. Used primarily for prayer and study, Hebrew reinforces sacredness, privilege and exclusivity of the Jewish faith, whereas the constant reshaping and reinterpretation of Yiddish offers a more accurate metaphor for diasporic Jewish identity (Shreiber 278).
With the majority of my family spread out between Montreal, New York and London UK, the concept of identity is relevant to understanding the ability of a group of people to stay intimately connected across physical space. Shreiber challenges the notion of diaspora as forced homelessness, instead framing it in a non-geographical way, introducing the possibility of feeling at home in the diaspora. Other scholars, like Ilan Zvi Baron, identify the undeniable and indescribable bond between Jewish people across continents and generations that can perhaps be explained by a desire for security as the result of a shared experience of minority and difference.
As I collect artifacts, both digital and physical, from different cities, I am investigating the most appropriate way to share these memories. Just like we will sit around the dinner table in a couple of weeks to share the stories of Passover, I hope to bring some of my relatives together in an organic way to paint complete and honest picture of my grandmother. The idea of the table has naturally led to an exploration of 360 video and the possibilities it would lend to the story. I look forward to looking deeper into the experience that 360 can give to the audience.
Baron, Ilan Zvi. “Diasporic Security and Jewish Identity.” Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, vol. 13, no. 2, July 2014, pp. 292–309. Taylor & Francis Online, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14725886.2013.824231.
Schram, Peninnah. “One Generation Tells another: The Transmission of Jewish Values through Storytelling.” Literature in Performance: A Journal of Literary and Performing Art, vol. 4, no. 2, 1984, pp. 33–45 doi:10.1080/10462938409391555.
Shreiber, Maeera Y. “The End of Exile: Jewish Identity and Its Diasporic Poetics.” PMLA, vol. 113, no. 2, Mar. 1998, pp. 273–287. Jstor, http://www.jstor.org/stable/463365.
113, no. 2, Mar. 1998, pp. 273–287. Jstor, http://www.jstor.org/stable/463365.
