Abstract

This paper aims to research the narrative structure of Oral Life History Storytelling recorded by narrative interview. Narrative interview is a way of oral statement that dictator tells his life history in story form without interviewer’s intervention as much as possible. Whoever dictates by narrative interview can become a creative storyteller. Life history storytelling by narrative interview is to reconstitute the process of living. This looks very much like novelist’s creation work, but there is different to ignore between creation of dictator and novelist. Oral life history text is dictated according to the principle of narrative segmentation and resulted in small and big unit-text. And various types of segmental marks appear upon the segmental positions. Unit-texts have fundamentally independent qualification. But they are compounded themselves and make more dynamic story structure. Dictators set up various super experiences which are reverted to theme or material. An oral life history storytelling has several super experiences and super experiences possess horizontal or hierarchical construction. Compound aspect of unit-texts can be divided into four types; conforming to time sequence, raising a topic and solving, conforming to alteration of space, conforming to association. This compound aspect may be selected by dictator’s attitude to life, strategy and ability of storytelling etc.