Rituals and the Real: Stories and Transformative Storytelling Folklorists distinguish between the setting of a storytelling event and the universe created within the story. The world of the teller and what she tells overlap, simultaneously exist, and react upon and against each other. Theoretical frameworks developed by narratologists and anthropologists help us explore the meaning and potency of ritual in shaping our reality. Rituals, like storytelling, are also performances in space and time that evoke other worlds. When we believingly participate in rituals, the world of the sacred is invited to exist and act upon our real life. We press against the dark glass and peek behind the veil that separates the story from the storytelling and the ritual from the real.

Rebecca Stevenson, Janet Garrard-Willis