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Midori
Unregistered User
(1/5/02 8:24:00 am)
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question: Am. literary folktales
Hey all,
I am about to start teaching 19th century Am. Lit. beginning with Washington Irving (to high school sophmores). I've been wracking my brain to find others in the tradition of the American literary folktale--hopefully women writers. I am familiar with them a little later--post Civil War--but I am hoping to find someone contemporary with Irving. I am woefully ignorant I realize--any suggestions?
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(1/5/02 9:53:11 am)
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A first attempt
According to Mark West in BEFORE OZ: Juveile Fantast mStories from nineteenth Century America (Archon, 1989) "The fact that most of the fantasy literature published for children durng the ninetenth century never made it into the history books raises some interesting questions about the historiography of children's literature, but it should not be interpreted to mean that there was no history to record."
He then points to allegories and fables a la Aesop as really early stuff. Like Parley's Book of Fables 1836, Hawthorne's Wonder Book 1851 and Tanglewood Tales 1853, Richard Henry Stoddard Adventures in Fairy-Land 1853, Louisa May Alcott's Flower Fables 1855, Jane G. Austin's Fairy Dreams 1859. (These last two are pretty whimpy imho.)
At the end of the century two names you must seek out--Howard Pyle and Frank Stockton for original fairy tales.
other women in the final four decades of the nineteenth century include Laura E. Richards, Elizabeth Payson {rentiss, Lucretia Hale.
BEFORE OZ has an intro and then reprints a number of the hard-to-find stories.
I think the magazines--like St Nicholas and others will be the place to find lots of fairy tales and magic stories. I have 70+ bound volumes of St. Nicholas. Wish you lived closer.
Jane
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Midori
Unregistered User
(1/5/02 10:10:55 am)
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Thanks!
Jane thanks hugely. I'm on my way to the library as soon as I hit reply!
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Don
Unregistered User
(1/5/02 5:31:50 pm)
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Alcott
If you didn't already come across it in your trip to the library, you might want to check out Daniel Shealy's edition of Alcott's FAIRY TALES AND FANTASY STORIES (Knoxville: Univ. of Tennessee Press, 1992).
You also might find the stories of Mary Wilkins Freeman of interest.
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bardichaun
Registered User
(1/5/02 10:19:27 pm)
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sighs
And of course Mark Twain can be brought up. After all,much of what he wrote follows the archetypes for folktales.
No..that is not what I was sighing about. I once owned a 1st Edition of Tanglewood Tales. Made the mistake of giving a friend a great dane/st bernard pup named Witka. (Lakota for crazy)...who while visiting developed a taste for literature.
Back to the subject..who wrote the Uncle Remus stories?
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Karen
Unregistered User
(1/6/02 1:17:43 am)
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American Mother Goose
Midori,
It's not a concrete example, but some claim that Mother Goose was a nineteenth century Boston woman. Maybe this
Ray Woods American Mother Goose
might be helpful- at least for the relationship between nineteenth century white American women and folk tales, in the iconographic sense. If you're looking at flower fables, some of Margaret Fuller's short stories might be interesting- although the link is a little more tenuous.
The Uncle Remus stories were written by Joel Chandler Harris. A helpful link:
xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97...remus.html
Karen.
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Kerrie
Registered User
(1/6/02 6:27:39 am)
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Not all writers...
and not all from the 19th century, but many of the women on these pages:
www.ortakales.com/illustrators/
www.ortakales.com/illustr...story.html
but some are writers and some worked with writers from the period
you may be looking at. Not sure if it helps for this topic, but
there is some good info there.
Sugarplum dreams,
Kerrie
Edited by: Kerrie at: 1/6/02 6:29:04 am
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NancyMe
Registered User
(1/6/02 8:23:46 am)
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Am. literary folktales
Frank Baum did a collection of American fairytales. There are also some collections of American folklore by B.A. Botkin but I don't think that they are particularly literary nor do they ascribe authorship so...
Nancy
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Jess
Unregistered User
(1/7/02 4:40:31 pm)
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Folktales
I am not sure whether they fit the example of folktales or not, but O'Henry certainly wrote some folkish stories, especially his tales regarding the Southwest, but also his depiction of New York City (of course he is not a woman either). He tended to focus on the lower and middle working class and since his stories often end in irony or morals (think "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Last Leaf") they have a sort of folkish quality. The Southwest and NYC stories also make a very interesting contrast. Guess you guys have figured out I am huge O'Henry fan by now.
I wonder if there is a collection of female short story writers of the type that used to publish monthly in newspapers and other periodicals. I imagine that it would be a good resource.
Slave tale collections other than the Uncle Remis type also exist (I may have to do some digging for these). And what about all those Paul Bunyun stories? Not really "literary", and again, I don't know who wrote them.
Jess
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Jess
Unregistered User
(1/7/02 5:11:13 pm)
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Early American literary folktales
Midori,
I had some more thoughts on this since my suggestions were really later 19th century. What about Uncle Tom's Cabin? One could not argue the literary character of this, the author is a woman and within the greater context of the story there is a certain aspect of this story, if combined with an analysis of the Uncle Remis stories and the Narrative of a Slave Girl (Frederick Douglas) that could give a greater perspective. This is of course not fantasy, and not folktalish like Irving. I think though it might work in conjunction with other works.
Jess
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Jess
Unregistered User
(1/7/02 6:43:30 pm)
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Further research
Midori,
Further research revealed no American female authors of literary folktales prior to the Civil War. I was a little discouraged. Seems that it is difficult to find ANYTHING (much less literary folktales) written by American female authors during the first half of the century. I did find some Native American myth collections dating from about 1916 collected or retold by female authors and there are a few collections of slave tales, but they seem to have been written down in the latter half of the 20th century. Sorry I could not be of more use. Spent a couple of hours on this.
I still think that if one had access to some early periodicals it might lead to a rich source. Anyone know of anything?
Jess
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Jess
Unregistered User
(1/7/02 6:44:56 pm)
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Early cited works
Excepted of course. Sorry I omitted that. I did run across the Alcott and Austin.
Jess
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Laura
McCaffrey
Registered User
(1/8/02 8:00:12 am)
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Re:narrative of a slave
Hey Jess,
I think you mean _Narrative of the Life of a Slave_ by Frederick Douglas. There's also a seperate narrative called _Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl_. The woman who wrote it published under the name Linda Brent, though her real name was Harriet Brent Jacobs. There is an edition that collects both these narratives into one book.
I guess I would argue that these are a different type of literature
than American literary fairy tale. They were meant to be used by
the abolitionist movement to publicize the horrors of slavery and
convince people of the humanity and morality of enslaved people.
On the other hand, Linda Brent's narrative does have some themes
that may prove interesting to analyze in relation to fairy tales
- the threat of sexual and physical danger,her cunning, and her
miraculous survival. I remember discussing in women studies class
that Brent explicitly stated the sexual danger she was in, though
she never gave in to her master's advances and miraculously he never
forced her to give in - which makes one wonder about the truth of
all the incidents as the master would not have been stopped or censured
by anyone if he had forced her. Because she told a story in which
her master had not succeeded in forcing her into "sexual impropriety"
(rape as we would call it now), the narrative was perfect for publicity
because she was considered "unsullied." At that time,
if she had admitted to any sexual relations, forced or otherwise,
her morality would have been called into question. (Though perhaps,
Midori, your school is not the place to discuss sexual danger in
fairy tales or other American Literature?)
Laura Mc
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Jess
Unregistered User
(1/8/02 4:31:39 pm)
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You are right
Laura,
Of course you are right. I was thinking that it could be used in conjunction with the Uncle Remis stories to create a unit. Something that could pull perspective into the Briar Rabbit tales (which if I am not mistaken aren't strickly American). If a high school student has the experience of seeing the environment in which the folktales developed it might the student help to understand them better.
As far as literary folktales are concerned I drew a big blank. I did quite a bit of searching and came up with little. It was quite frustrating. I imagine Midori had the same problem. I was rather offering a suggestion on a different way to approach the material.
You are right about the two slave narratives too. I went and double checked my source. I had a copy of the Fredrick Douglas, but was actually thinking of the other. Oops. Sorry.
Thanks for clearing the subject.
Jess
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Jess
Unregistered User
(1/8/02 5:03:13 pm)
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Could you follow that
Laura,
That was a little garbled - sorry. I got interrupted mid-thought and didn't quite get it right. Let me know if you need some clarity.
Jess
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Laura
McCaffrey
Registered User
(1/9/02 6:56:22 am)
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Re: Could you follow that
No problem Jess. My thouthts often come out the same way!
As to Brer Rabbit - you're right, he has some interesting brothers both in African folklore and Native American folklore. I haven't done a lot of research on him, so I'm not sure if the Native American folklore influenced the imported African folklore or the other way round. Laura Mc
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