04425nam 22007214a 450 991078504820332120230818214348.01-282-67921-X97866126792160-226-67377-410.7208/9780226673776(CKB)2670000000033506(EBL)557578(OCoLC)648759799(SSID)ssj0000421228(PQKBManifestationID)11315492(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000421228(PQKBWorkID)10412659(PQKB)11291433(MiAaPQ)EBC557578(DE-B1597)524990(OCoLC)1135563518(DE-B1597)9780226673776(Au-PeEL)EBL557578(CaPaEBR)ebr10402618(CaONFJC)MIL267921(EXLCZ)99267000000003350620050915d2006 uy 0engur|n|---|||||txtrdacontentcrdamediacrrdacarrierIt was like a fever storytelling in protest and politics /Francesca PollettaChicago :University of Chicago Press,2006.1 online resource (xiv, 242 pages)0-226-67375-8 0-226-67376-6 Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-230) and index.Why stories matter -- "It was like a fever--" : why people protest -- Strategy as metonymy : why activists choose the strategies they do -- Stories and reasons : why deliberation is only sometimes democratic -- Ways of knowing and stories worth telling : why casting oneself as a victim sometimes hurts the cause -- Remembering Dr. King on the House and Senate floor : why movements have the impacts they do -- Conclusion: folk wisdom and scholarly tales.Activists and politicians have long recognized the power of a good story to move people to action. In early 1960 four black college students sat down at a whites-only lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and refused to leave. Within a month sit-ins spread to thirty cities in seven states. Student participants told stories of impulsive, spontaneous action-this despite all the planning that had gone into the sit-ins. "It was like a fever," they said. Francesca Polletta's It Was Like a Fever sets out to account for the power of storytelling in mobilizing political and social movements. Drawing on cases ranging from sixteenth-century tax revolts to contemporary debates about the future of the World Trade Center site, Polletta argues that stories are politically effective not when they have clear moral messages, but when they have complex, often ambiguous ones. The openness of stories to interpretation has allowed disadvantaged groups, in particular, to gain a hearing for new needs and to forge surprising political alliances. But popular beliefs in America about storytelling as a genre have also hurt those challenging the status quo. A rich analysis of storytelling in courtrooms, newsrooms, public forums, and the United States Congress, It Was Like a Fever offers provocative new insights into the dynamics of culture and contention.StorytellingPolitical aspectsCommunicationPolitical aspectsPolitics and cultureCommunication in folkloreSocial movementsProtest movementsactivism, politicians, narrative, protest, rhetoric, social movements, change, progress, politics, political science, sit in, segregation, storytelling, persuasion, emotion, democracy, nonfiction, history, tax revolts, world trade center, alliance, disadvantaged groups, needs, action, status quo, communication, folklore, grassroots, strategy, deliberation, reason, rationality, victim, house, senate, congress, speech, oratory, fame, celebrity, mlk jr, martin luther king.StorytellingPolitical aspects.CommunicationPolitical aspects.Politics and culture.Communication in folklore.Social movements.Protest movements.808.5/43Polletta Francesca628045MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910785048203321It was like a fever1229835UNINA