AfricanAmerican Folktales

1
African-American Folktales

• Sources The Heath Anthology of American
  Literature Fourth Edition 2002
• African-American Folktales Susan L. Blake

2
Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit
3
Folktale

• A characteristically anonymous, timeless, and
  placeless tale circulated orally among a people
• Interaction between authors and audiences, who
  bring to the meeting their own social and
  individual experiences.

4
Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and Brer Bear
5
African-American Folktales

• Motifs come from African and European tradition
• Comes out of slavery, but it is not an artifact
  of the slave period but a living tradition

6
African-American Folktales
7
The Art of the Tale

• Three audiences
• Adapts the traditional motif to particular
  circumstances

8
Brer Rabbit and Brer Terrapin
9
Themes
10
Themes

• Contradiction between humanity and slavery
• Power relations
• Racism
• Myth of romantic plantation

• Human nature
• Social Structure
• Sexism
• Supernatural
• Economy

11
Themes
12
Themes
13
Themes
14
Themes
15
Themes
16
Themes
17
Themes
18
Questions to Consider

• The tales are so simpleare they really art?
• If they did not actually contribute to the
  abolition of slavery, how are they subversive?
• Am I uncomfortable with the stereotypical
  characterizations and dialect?
• Whats the point of perpetuating images of
  slavery today?