Wishbone Reference and Interpretation in Black Folk Narrative |
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Author:
| Jarmon, Laura C. |
ISBN: | 978-1-57233-273-7 |
Publication Date: | Jul 2003 |
Publisher: | University of Tennessee Press
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Book Format: | Paperback |
List Price: | USD $26.00 |
Book Description:
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Wishbone: Reference and Interpretation in Black Folk Narrative follows African American folklore to its roots in African sources, bringing together a selection of narratives from both Africa and the United States and stressing their common bond and history. Laura C. Jarmon provides synopses of a number of African and African American folk tales, giving the reader a broad sample of tales with themes common to both cultures. Then, through analysis of form, language, and tone,...
More Description Wishbone: Reference and Interpretation in Black Folk Narrative follows African American folklore to its roots in African sources, bringing together a selection of narratives from both Africa and the United States and stressing their common bond and history. Laura C. Jarmon provides synopses of a number of African and African American folk tales, giving the reader a broad sample of tales with themes common to both cultures. Then, through analysis of form, language, and tone, she argues that black folk expression is modal, i.e., open-ended and tentative, a posture revealed in both the behavior and the discourse of the narratives' folk participants. By tracing the folklore to it's sources, Jarmon seeks to correct nineteenth-century suggestions that African American folklore must have its origin in European sources.
The Author: Laura C. Jarmon is professor of English at the University of Tennessee, martin. She is coeditor of Thomas Talley's The Negro traditions (Tennessee), and author of Arbors to Bricks: A Hundred Years of African American Education in Rutherford County, Tennessee, 1865-1965. She lives in Stanton, Tennessee.