At ændre nutiden gennem fortiden – mundtlig historiefortælling i Danmark

Resumé

Mange i dag tænker umiddelbart, at mundtlig fortælling af traditionelle sagn og eventyr mest hører fortiden til. Men inden for de sidste årtier er der opstået en ny interesse for mundtlig historiefortælling i Danmark. De nye fortællere beretter traditionelle sagn og eventyr, men også historier de selv har oplevet eller fundet på, eller historier fra skønlitterære værker. Man får indtryk af, at historiefortælling stadig har en forbindelse til fortiden. De største fortællefestivaler finder sted i historiske omgivelser på museer, og nutidens historiefortællere henviser ofte til fortælletraditionens lange historie, når de taler og skriver om historiefortælling.Hidtil har den nye interesse for historiefortælling ikke været genstand for forskning, men artiklen fremlægger et studie af historiefortælleres syn på fortælling og fortid. Fokus er, hvilke betydninger begreberne nostalgi og autenticitet har for fortællerne. Artiklen bygger primært på interviews med historiefortællere. Fortællerne blev blandt andet bedt om at beskrive, hvordan de umiddelbart forestillede sig, at historiefortælling fandt sted i fortiden. Det er et positivt billede af fortiden, der toner frem, og fortællerne bruger billederne af fortiden som afsæt til at kritisere træk af den moderne levemåde. De kritiserer medierne og de elektriske apparater for at gøre mennesker passive og ødelægge deres nærvær med andre levende mennesker. Ved at genoptage - hvad fortællerne opfatter som - en ældgammel og uddød tradition, ønsker de at skabe nogle oplevelser, som det moderne menneske savner i vore dages samfund. For fortællerne danner fortiden et idealiseret modbillede til nutiden og rummer dermed mulighed for, at fortællerne kan tale om deres idealer og håb for historiefortælling.

Changing the Present through the Past - Oral Story-Telling in Denmark

Today, many people spontaneously think that oral transmission of traditional legends and fairy tales are a thing of the past. But in the last few decades a new interest has arisen in Denmark in oral story-telling. The new story-tellers relatetraditional legends and fairy tales, but also adventures that they themselves have experienced or invented, or stories from works of fiction. One has the impressionthat story-telling still has a link to the past. The major story-telling festivalstake place in historical surroundings in museums, and present-day story-tellers frequently point to the long history of the story-telling tradition when they speakor write about story-telling.So far, the new interest in story-telling has not been a subject for research, but the present article presents a study of the view of the story-tellers on story-telling and the past. Focus is on which meanings the concepts of nostalgia and authenticityhave for the story-tellers.The article is primarily based on interviews with story-tellers. They were interalia asked to describe how they would spontaneously imagine that story-telling took place in the past. It is a positive picture of the past that emerges, and the story-tellers use images of the past as a platform from which to criticize modernways of life. They criticize the media and electronic gadgets for making people passive and spoiling their being together with other living human beings. By reviving - what the storytellers see as - an ancient and extinct tradition, they wish to create experiences that modern man misses in present-day society. For the story-tellers, the past presents an idealized contrast to the present and thus contains a possibility for the story-tellers to expand about their ideals and hopes for story-telling.