| dc.description.abstract | This thesis explores the Integrative storytelling methods which Thomas King
employs in his novel Green Grass, Running Water. This novel includes and focusses
on oral storytelling methods concerning listener participation, and also on literary
allusions and symbolism, to prompt the reader into an interactive trickster role to make
things happen in discourse.
In order for the reader to understand that he/she has an interactive role. King
must give many different examples of reading and roles of reading and storytelling. I
explore four main roles and character groups in this thesis. The first are the four old
Indians, who exemplify and set the standard for storytelling in this novel; the second is
Coyote, who is a reckless participant, but more importantly a student with whom the
reader can identify; the third group are the characters, Eli, Lionel, and Bursom, who
are realistic readers in relation to the reader’s position - they are most like a reader;
and lastly, the narrator, whose role as a voyeur and non-directive teacher to Coyote
and the reader is consistent throughout the novel. Each of these roles demonstrates
the various levels of oral storytelling and implies a great amount of power to the reader
in his/her role as interpreter and trickster of discourse. To further demonstrate each of
the groups' roles. King has loosely separated the four levels of narrative that each of
these groups inhabit. I am using Genette’s and Rimmon-Kenan’s terminology to
examine the various levels of diegesis and to deconstruct and delineate how the
various characters’ powers in crossing the diegetic boundaries in this novel prompt the
reader into self awareness and push him/her towards a transformative and
interactive reading experience. | |
