Folk Narratives
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 1996
From: Tom Pearson
Subject: Folk Narratives query
As part of the beginning phases of a comparative study of the performative act of story-telling, I am looking for good collections of folk narratives, by various groups of southerners, including: appalachian, tide-water, Afircan-American, and Indian. Can anyone recommend a good collection of collected folk narratives?
Thank you.
Tom Pearson
University of North Carolina
tpearson@email.unc.edu
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996
From: David Herr
Subject: Folk Narratives Query - 7 responses
Scot French writes:
You might check out the work of F. Roy Johnson (1902-1988), an amateur historian and folklorist from Murfreesboro, N.C. He gathered stories from residents of Tidewater Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. His self-published books include The Tuscaroras, Vols. 1 and 2; Tales from Old Carolina; Legends and Myths of North Carolina's Roanoke-Chowan Area; The Fabled Doctor Jim Jordan; and The Nat Turner Story. His papers and some tape-recorded interviews are available at the North Carolina State Archives.
Scot French
University of Virginia
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Steve Reich writes:
On African American tales, you might consult the collections compiled by J. Mason Brewer. Some of these were published by the Texas Folklore Society. You might also look at the footnotes to Levines
Hope this helps.
Best,
Steve Reich
Department of History
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL 60208
streich@nwu.edu
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Bill Cecil-Fronsman writes:
A good look at story-telling is an MA thesis by Joyce Joines Newman, "Humorous Local Character Stoies From Wilkes County, North Carolina: An Individual Stoytelling Tradition" (University of North Carolina, 1978). Students of southern folk culture will recognize the name "Joines" from the film "On Being a Joines." This is the work of his daughter, Joyce, who anaylzed her father's story-telling technique and compared it with the narrative form of Harden E. Taliaferro, who in 1859 published a collection of local character sketches under the title, _Fisher's River: Scenes and Characters_. What makes this study so interesting is that Taliaferro was from Surry County, while Joines was from Wilkes County, one county east of Surry. Despite both subjects coming from the same locality, Newman points to their dramatically different approaches to story telling.
Bill Cecil-Fronsman zzceci@acc.wuacc.edu Department of History Office: (913) 231-1010 x1317 Washburn University Fax: (913) 231-1084 Topeka, KS 66621
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Joshua D. Rothman writes:
Try "Outwitting the Devil," Charles Perdue, ed., which I think was published in 1987. It's a collection of folktales collected by the WPA from Wise County in Southwest Virginia. Also try "Sang Branch Settlers" and "Up Cutshin and Down Greasy," both by Leonard Roberts, which are collected folk materials from Kentucky.
Joshua D. Rothman
University of Virginia
jdr9j@virginia.edu
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One of the better collections is by John Burrison, I believe called Story Tellers of the South.
Cliff Kuhn
Georgia State University
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Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_ (New York: Crown, 1976).
Patrick Rael
Bowdoin College
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I would suggest examining various works by Leonard W. Roberts, particularly _South From Hell-Fer-Sartin_ and _Sang Branch Settlers_. These are collections of folktales from eastern Kentucky, and portray, as well as a written medium can, the oral art of story-telling.
Richard D. Starnes
Department of History
Auburn University
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996
From: David Herr
Subject: Folk Narrative query - another thought
An excellent book providing a reasonable cross-section of southern storytelling traditions is John Burrison's volume _Storytellers_ published by the University of Georgia Press (1989). While it covers only examples from Georgia, many of the narratives are representative of the region.
Date: Wed, 1 May 1996
From: Janice Redington Ballo
Subject: Folk Narratives
A good source for folktales from the western North Carolina region is John Parris. For many years he has written a column, "Roaming the Mountains," for the Asheville Citizen-Times.
Janice Redington Ballo
Tallahassee, Florida
Date: Thu, 2 May 1996
From: Paul Tewkesbury
Subject: Folk Narrative Query
Lyle Saxon's GUMBO YA YA is a collection of New Orleans folklore, I believe.
Zora Neale Hurston's MULES AND MEN is a collection of African-American folklore.
And J. J. Reneaux has published CAJUN FOLKTALES.
Hope these works help.
Paul Tewkesbury
Louisiana State University
Date: Fri, 3 May 1996
From: Matthew Dunne
Subject: Folk Tales - 1 response
Unless I've missed it, I haven't seen anyone recommend the collection of African-American folk tales gathered by Zora Neale Hurston in *Mules and Men* (1935).
Matthew Dunne,
University of Virginia
Date: Sun, 5 May 1996
From: Michael Montgomery
Subject: Folk Narratives
Anyone wanting some good folk narratives from the Smoky Mountains should consult either of two books by Joseph Sargent Hall: _Yarns and Tales from Old Smoky_ and _Smoky Mountain Folks and Their Lore_. These narratives are "good" both in the sense of audience interest/fast pace (many are hunting tales) and because they are only slightly edited versions of recordings made by Hall a half-century ago (and the narrators are usually identified and located).
Michael Montgomery
Dept of English
Univ of South Carolina
Humanities & Social
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