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Read and Respond

Bale displays categories of sources—all contributed by Bale members—on a wide range of topics. Each category has its own page and Bale's tools allow you to respond to individual sources and to contribute citations for additional sources. Click on a category below to view the category and its sources and responses.

A Note on Citations: Citations will vary depending on the documentation system you are using. The following models conform to MLA style. Please adapt the information as appropriate. Please note that comments on categories sources do not have distinct URLs while comments on individual sources are found on the source page.

Small, Nancy R., and April Conway (Eds.). "Category: Storytelling and Research." Bale: An Annotated Bibliography of Narrative and Storywork, April 14, 2024. https://bale.wacclearinghouse.org/bib/category.cfm?categoryid=14.

Leschak, Peter. "Comment: Storytelling is far from well understood. In fact ...." Storytelling and Research, edited by Nancy R. Small and April Conway, Bale: An Annotated Bibliography of Narrative and Storywork, April 29, 2024. https://bale.wacclearinghouse.org/bib/category.cfm?categoryid=14.

Brown, Jill. "Comment on 'Growing Up on the Mesabi Iron Range' by Peter Leschak." Stories from the Mesabi Range, edited by Nancy R. Small and April Conway, Bale: An Annotated Bibliography of Narrative and Storywork, April 30, 2024. https://bale.wacclearinghouse.org/bib/comment-source.cfm?sourceid=13.

(Unsure/Category Not Yet Included)

Description: If you are contributing a source and don't see a best-fit category for it yet, then place it here. The editorial and facilitator teams will make sure it lands in a good home. Feel free to suggest a (new) category at the top of your annotation. If you're interested in being more involved as a category proposer/facilitator, please fill out the "Propose a New Category" form linked on the homepage.

Appalachian Storytelling

Description: This category includes texts interested and invested in rhetorical and narrative practices, methodologies, and theories that live in relation to cultures, communities, and spaces constructed as and/or identified with Appalachia.

Autotheory

Description: Autotheory employs storytelling to enact the embodied nature and literary transcription of lived theory. Drawing from feminist, queer, decolonial, anti-racist, and critical theory, autotheory crosses and explodes genres.

Caribbean Rhetoric

Description: This collection of sources features Caribbean rhetoric. Caribbean rhetoric is interdisciplinary, multi-dimensional, and eclectic. It comprises (but is not limited to) approaches, genres, methodologies, pedagogy, popular culture, autobiographies, memoirs, performances, rants, vernacular, and storytelling that are Caribbean-influenced.

Community Literacies

Description: Johnson et al. carry the torch of scholars who use storytelling to research, theorize, and teach community literacies, noting that this type of research is especially important in "communities where storytelling is a literacy practice that reflects people

Counterstories

Description: Counterstory is a necessary genre to disrupt harmful practices in research, mentorship, writing, and cultural production. In her seminal text "On Cucuys in Bird’s Feathers: A Counterstory as Parable," Aja Martinez writes "...critical race theory (CRT) counterstory functions as a method for writers to intervene in research methods that would form master narratives based on ignorance and assumptions about minoritized and/or vulnerable population..." Martinez establishes counterstory within a interdisciplinary genealogy, though counterstories function even beyond research methods as a pedagogical praxis, a mode of learning for student writers, and as framework for analyzing multimodal texts that extend the form of the counterstory.

Feminist Storytelling

Description: Patricia A. Sullivan calls for feminist scholars to continue

Indigenous/Indigenist Storywork

Description: Resources and scholarship by Indigenous authors written for sharing broadly with writers, teachers, and researchers interested in learning more and perhaps applying these methods in their own activities. Sources found here can be used by people of many different cultures and backgrounds, but always must be considered deeply, with respect, reciprocity, and relational accountability.

Narrative and Pedagogy

Description: While its primary focus is on writing and rhetoric pedagogy, this category takes a broad approach to applying narrative in any pedagogical stage and context. Sources in this category consider how storytelling can be incorporated into assignments, used as a classroom activity, used as a reflective tool for instructors, and more. Some sources also consider narrative's implications for marginalized students as well as justice-centered pedagogy.

Storying in Technical Communication

Description: The "social justice turn" in technical communication has ushered in exciting new possibilities in blending story as method and tradition and the genres of professional communication. This category explores the ways in which story serves not as one method, but as THE method to reconnect to the humanity within professional and technical communication.

Western Narrative Theory and Methods

Description: Sources listed here grow out of the Western/EuroAmerican approaches to knowledge-making via story and narrative as applied in the humanities and social sciences. Entries grounded in first-hand storytelling (e.g. memoirs, autoethnography) are situated in a Western perspective.

Working Class Studies/Working Class Rhetorics

Description: This category aims to explore, expand, and contribute to the field of working class studies. This includes methods of storytelling such as ethnography, narrative, case studies, and qualitative research.