Rita Banerjee – Narrative Design from World Literature: the Kishōtenketsu and West African Griot Tradition (July 2024)

Rita Banerjee’s opening talk explores how we can expand our craft knowledge and technique as writers by studying narrative design from world literature. The Japanese kishōtenketsu offers a new way to compose a poem or story beyond the Western emphasis on the plot triangle or Aristotelian idea of “plot is action.” Likewise, the West African Griot Tradition emphasizes the communal aspect of storytelling and notes the import of the storyteller and listener in the creation of a tale the sustains the history of a community and imagines its future. Some authors studied in the talk include Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, E.J. Koh, Ocean Vuong, Samuel Kọ́láwọ́lé, Yaa Gyasi, Teju Cole, and JJJJJerome Ellis.