Conversational stories as performances: The case of Greek

This study is intended as a step towards the full uncovery of the textual a nd contextual, cross-cultural and particularistic aspects of the contested notion of oral performances. The data comprise conversational storytelling performances from Greece. To capture the interplay between conventional res ources and contextual contingencies involved in any performance, the study employs the three dimensions of narrativity, teller-tale-telling (Blum-Kulk a, 1997), as the loci of performances. With respect to the tale, Greek stor ies range from mini-performances to full-fledged or sustained performances. The choice of one or the other is interrelated to a story's episodic struc turing, topic, and purposes of telling. A constellation of devices (keys) f orm the hallmarks of Greek performances; these are classified as poetic or theatrical. With regard to the stories' telling, it is argued that the tell er-audience interactional norms are geared towards granting strong floor-ho lding rights and upholding full-hedged, single-teller performances which ca ll attention to the teller's skill and autonomy. Finally, the locus of tell er is proposed as the main site for the emergent properties of performance events. It is also argued that the relationship between these properties an d the teller can be best explored with reference to the concept of position ing (Bamberg, 1997). This allows us to shed light on how performance device s, in their individualized and local uses, act as indexes of personal and s ociocultural identities. The study's findings point to avenues for future r esearch and suggest analytical ways of pursuing it. Specifically, the class ification of performance keys as poetic or theatrical could be useful for t he exploration of cross-cultural aspects of performance styles. In addition , the "Greek" performance devices reinforce the assumption that there is a certain set of devices typical of verbal art cross-culturally; this needs t o be further documented. Overall, the study aims at demonstrating the valid ity and necessity of exploring the pragmatic work which performance keys ac complish in interactional contexts.