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Author
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Comment
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rosyelf
(5/1/04 2:12 am)
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Brer Rabbit-which version?
I am a british woman who has never been to America-yet-and would very much like to read some of the Brer Rabbit stories. I'm aware that they were retold and published by Joel Chandler Harris in the C19th and that some of these retellings are considered racist. What do people out there think ? I'm also aware of more recent retellings by Julius Lester in which Brer Rabbit and friends go to shopping malls, etc. as well as the "traditional" stuff-what do you think of that ? And are there other retellings- recommendations, anyone ? I'm not looking for definitive answers, just thoughts and reflections. I presume a lot of American contributors to the site grew up on these stories.
In advance, thank you for your feedback.
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AliceCEB
Registered User
(5/1/04 1:45 pm)
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Re: Brer Rabbit-which version?
My favorite version is the compilations The Tales of Uncle Remus:
The Adventures of Brer Rabbit and More Tales of Uncle Remus:
Further Adventures of Brer Rabbit, His Friends, Enemies, and Others
as told by Julius Lester, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. These were
combined into one volume -- I'm not sure of the title (although
I assume "Tales of Uncle Remus" and "Adventures of
Brer Rabbit" are in it). Lester's foreword explains his choice
of language and the ordering the tales, and discusses the oral tradition
behind the tales. He added the occasional modern element to the
tales but kept the original story lines, and the modern elements
were of a kind that a modern storyteller would use as a simile an
audience can relate to (e.g. "Brer Rabbit took off like a 747
jet," from Brer Rabbit Finally Gets Beaten). I don't
find that these modern elements intrude on the stories. As suggested
by Lester, I highly recommend reading the tales aloud -- and if
you can get an audience, even of one, it's even better.
All the best,
Alice
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kristiw
Unregistered User
(5/1/04 8:14 pm)
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Song of the South
Speaking of adaptations of Brer Rabbit tales, there's of course the infamous Song of the South, the film Disney never admits to making. I haven't seen it, since it was so effectively suppressed, but if you can find a copy it would, I'm sure, be an interesting vantage point on racist ideologies and folklore.
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Laura
McCaffrey
Registered User
(5/2/04 5:25 am)
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Re: Brer Rabbit
I second Alice's suggestion.
BTW, I am an American but didn't grow up hearing or reading them. I knew they existed but that's about all. This could be because I'm from the northeast, not the south. Or not. I don't know.
LauraMc
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aka
Greensleeves
(5/2/04 11:08 am)
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Re: Brer Rabbit
Laura, I'd venture to say that it's a question of our age, and a certain lack of popularity of American stories with potentially racist overtones during the 1970s-'80s. That was my take on it, anyway. I have one vague memory of hearing a record album of an Uncle Remus story when I was very young, and I had seen the "Zippity Doo-dah" bit from "Song of the South," but not the whole film.
Or maybe you're right and it's geographical: I'm from the Midwest.
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Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(5/2/04 12:32 pm)
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Re: Brer Rabbit
I was born and raised in the South, although my parents are transplants from Iowa and Wyoming. Uncle Remus was not in the 1970s and early 80s curriculum in Tennessee either. I was familiar with Brer Rabbit, but not intimate with anything more than the tar baby story which I perhaps heard two or three times from one picture book.
Heidi
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Nalo
Registered User
(5/2/04 6:21 pm)
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Re: Brer Rabbit
I was born and raised mostly in the Caribbean, and have lived in the U.S. Have lived in Canada for the last three decades. I'm familiar with a whole class of African diasporic "animal" folk tales in which the animals are all "brother" (i.e. "brer," "b'rer," or "buh") something: Brer Tiger, Brer Anansi, Brer Dog, etc. The 'Brer Rabbit' tales feel distinctly American, and the Brer Nancy stories (or "nancy stories," named for Anansi the spider man) feel distinctly Caribbean, but there are clear links between them. Jamaican folklorist and historian Phillip Sherlock has collected a number of Caribbean folk tales, including nancy stories, and black American folklorist and YA science fiction writer Virginia Hamilton collected a number of black American folk tales, including some animal tales. (Her collection _Her Stories_ contains "Little Girl and Buh Rabby ,"--Brer Rabbit--which is delightful.) I don't own as much of either person's work as I'd like to, but I think that both those people's retellings not only retain a flavour of the oral version, they do so from the inside, rather than from an external view (by which I mean, from outside African diasporic culture) that can be racist. Mind you, I don't know whether Phillip Sherlock was black or not, but he was Jamaican, which arguably gave him a bit of an edge when it came to creating the feel of black Caribbean folktales.
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Laura
McCaffrey
Registered User
(5/3/04 8:35 am)
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Re: Brer Rabbit
Nalo - of course! I feel a bit mush headed for not thinking of Hamilton.
Interesting, people's comments about age vs regionalism as explanations for lack of familiarity. I feel awkward adding this, but it has crossed my mind that the reason might also have to do with race and/or ethnicity.
LauraMc
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Nalo
Registered User
(5/3/04 10:16 am)
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Re: Brer Rabbit
No need to feel awkward about that. It probably is a factor.
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janeyolen
Registered User
(5/3/04 1:31 pm)
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more Br'er Rabbit
There are also JUMP and JUMP AGAIN. Author I can't remember, pictures by Barry Moser.
Jane
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rosyelf
(5/5/04 2:02 am)
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Brer Rabbit versions
Thank you to everyone who has contributed. That's all fascinating stuff-plenty to get me thinking. And for the specific titles and authors, also, thank you.
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redtriskell
Registered User
(5/5/04 11:11 pm)
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brer rabbit et all
I couldn't resist this one... I'm Southern. I'm white. I'm fairly young. I grew up hearing these stories aloud from a wonderful local storyteller. She (a jolly,round white lady) came every year to my elementary school with her helper (a stick thin, older black man) and they "did" the stories for us. It was breathtaking. At the time, I certainly didn't notice the racial overtones, and I don't really believe my black classmates did, either. We loved the funny-goofy-clever antics of Brer Rabbit and the funny-goofy-stupid Brer Fox and Brer Bear. As an adult, it's difficult to reconcile the tone of these tales to modern racial issues in America. I know they sound the way they do because they were imported, along with their tellers, from Africa and the Caribbean. I recognize how their affectations sound ... demeaning? racist?... to the modern ear. I think it's a pity that they are so difficult to hear now. The same storyteller still works in my area, but she doesn't do those stories anymore. I wish more people understood that these stories were written down in an America that didn't really understand what they were. I was taught that many of these tales were used to combat the vicious racism of the slave era. If you realize that lots of the animal/trickster stories were told, not only by slaves to each other, but also to the white children they frequently cared for, it changes the way they sound.To put it another way, I imagine that there were plenty of little white kids whose nurses told them these stories. I also imagine that these white kids responded to Brer Rabbit just the way the black kids did. Stories work the best when they change your heart and mind, not because they preach, but because you loved them as a child. Like I said before, I think it's a pity we don't allow Brer Rabbit tales to be what they are. They are stories from another time and place- we shun them to our detriment- but I believe it's a time and place we need to remember.
I have also actually seen Song of the South. In a movie theatre. It's hard to watch- the caricature of Uncle Remus is painful today. The movie was originally released in the early forties, but even trying to keep that in mind, it has a high cringe factor. I saw it at a theatre that runs old films for cheap prices. The theatre no longer shows it, due to outcry from local black politicians. Again, I think it would serve us better to remember than to forget. Next thing you know, there will be calls to censor Mark Twain...oh, wait, that's already been done.
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AliceCEB
Registered User
(5/6/04 7:13 am)
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Brer Rabbit versions
Another version that came to mind is Zora Neale Hurston's Every
Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Folk-Tales from the Gulf States
which was published in 2001 by her estate. These are some of the
tales she gathered in the late '20s in Florida, Alabama, Georgia,
New Orleans and the Bahamas, under a small grant from the Carter
Woodson's Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, and
with the intellectual support of anthropologist Franz Boas. Among
the stories are "Animal Tales"--which include a few Brer
Rabbit stories. She attempted to stay faithful to the exact words
of the tales as well as the dialect, and provided the storyteller's
name (although not consistently). The volume also includes many
other tales including "Devil Tales", "Witch and Hant
Tales", "Heaven Tales", "Tall Tales", "Women
Tales" and much more.
Best,
Alice
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Nalo
Registered User
(5/6/04 11:41 am)
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Re: brer rabbit et all
Good points. I get distressed when I realise that many people in this part of the world think that it's shameful or even racist to talk about race--which conveniently also makes it very difficult to talk about racism without being branded as part of the problem. Those stories need to be kept in the canon, and we need to be able to read them and understand them in context.
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rosyelf
(5/6/04 11:42 am)
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brer rabbit
Thank you again-more fascinating imput!
I have a hunch that Joel Chandler Harris, from what I can glean, was paternalistic in his racism rather than murderous/tortorous(is that a word ?)-his depiction of Uncle Remus is painful, yes, and unacceptable today, but when the stories were first told, in the context of vicious attitudes and slavery, as redtriskell says, J.C.H. would have been AHEAD of his time. Maybe we are in danger of forgetting, yes. I think it's great that various storytellers since-Julius Lester, Zora Neale Hurston on behalf of her informants, the two people who did the stories for you, redtriskell, when you were a child-have been able to celebrate the vivacity of the stories whilst ridding them, at least partly, of their "nastinesses". I know that this sort of thing can be done badly, even laughably, by people whose writing is not so good and by people who are driven ONLY by an agenda. I'm going to put several of the titles suggested on this thread on my wishlist and really get reading, actually COMPARE the tellings of the stories. I think it'll be great fun.
thank you again
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AliceCEB
Registered User
(5/6/04 1:28 pm)
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Re: brer rabbit
. . .have been able to celebrate the vivacity of the stories
whilst ridding them, at least partly, of their "nastinesses".
"Nastiness" is a difficult word. Hurston's compilations contain plenty of "nastiness", because they are transcriptions of oral folktales where everyone's foibles are portrayed--and sometimes stereotypes play a portion. There are several "God Tales" where the reason the storyteller gives that blacks have nothing or have dark skin is because they were too lazy to come to God and slept while others received gifts. There is a section called "John and Massa Tales" where John (or Jack), a black slave, is sometimes smarter than white Massa, sometimes dumber, sometimes wins and sometimes loses.
In creating the compilation, Hurston was a folklorist (before there was such a thing), and so accuracy of the African-American oral lore was more important than ridding it of offensive material. The overwhelming impression I get, however, is not that people were riddled with stereotypes, but that the storytellers and characters they portrayed where altogether human--something that a racist white society did not acknowlege. Among the many things the tales did, I believe this was an important element.
Best,
Alice
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rosyelf
(5/7/04 3:35 am)
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brer rabbit
I'm sorry-I didn't really explain myself too well there. When I said "nastinesses" I didn't mean the stories should have any unpleasant behaviour edited out-foibles, weak points, blind spots are all part of what makes us human, after all.I simply meant that STEREOTYPES were nasty, and that we're all richer without them.
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Colleen
Unregistered User
(5/7/04 11:28 am)
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Age and Geography
I remember very clearly both reading and hearing read aloud the Tar Baby story and the "whatever you do, don't throw me into the briar patch" story as a child. It was my mom who read them to me out of a very old book (either her's or my dad's as a child) which, I think, contained may children's stories. I remember especially the illustrations from the Tar Baby story. I'm nearly 41, grew up in Michigan and Indiana. My mom is from northern Indiana (near South Bend) and my dad from eastern Michigan (north of Detroit).
I also remember seeing "Song of the South" once in the theater - it was a rerelease, of course, and was probably in the early 1970s in Michigan.
As a child, it never occurred to me that there were racist overtones in any of the stories or the movie. (As a child, I also never saw racist overtones in "Little Black Sambo" - I just thought he was pretty clever, to outsmart the tigers the way he did.)
No real point to this post, I guess, except to compare experiences with others posting to the thread.
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