Abstract
Aegli Brouskou
American College of Thessaloniki
Once upon a time there was an old man and an old woman. Exchanging fοlktales with life stories in an elders home
One of the most difficult experiences while visiting an elders’ home is the elders themselves calling visitors and personnel to ‘listen to a story’. Nobody seems to be available, or willing to respond to this urgent need. And yet for the elders, to tell a story, or to narrate their life history, is a matter of testing their memory, and of verifying their identity. As I seek to build a substantial relationship with the people I meet here, I propose a workshop of storytelling, that can contain plans and needs of both parties, and engage myself in this activity on a regular basis. In this paper I shall describe the ways in which the folktales I tell to a group of elders, are exchanged with life narratives, through challenging mechanisms of associations, fragmented memories and commentaries.
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