• Corpus ID: 163004362

Fiction, Fact, and Imagination: A Tokelau Narrative

@inproceedings{Huntsman1990FictionFA,
  title={Fiction, Fact, and Imagination: A Tokelau Narrative},
  author={Judith Huntsman},
  year={1990}
}

• J. Huntsman
• Published 1 May 1990
• Art

Some years ago I read and later published (1981a) a short paper proposing that Polynesian oral narratives be viewed as creative art rather than sacrosanct “tradition,” and that this change in perspective called for a very different approach to the study of narratives. Instead of seeking the authentic “tradition,” scholars would listen to and record many renderings of the same narrative (or similar narratives) and talk about them with their tellers and audiences. I concluded (221): “If we listen to the same ‘tale’ again and again, fi nding it always different, and appreciate these variations, we will be celebrating creativity.” This proposal arose from my own studies of Tokelau narratives but was largely motivated by my disquiet with the veneration of “tradition” by Polynesianists and Polynesians at the expense of creativity (cf. Wendt 1983). What follows is one outcome of following my own prescription. By way of several versions of a rather intriguing narrative, I explore the distinction between “fact” and “fi ction” in Tokelau narrative. Although the primary question has to do with the status of the “narrated event,” it entails consideration of the “narrative texts” and “narrative events” (see Bauman 1986), and also consultation with the tellers.