The role of the American black woman in folktales: an interdisciplinary study of identification and interpretation
Description
Typically, the black woman character has been underrepresented and often ignored in the area of American folklore. If discussed at all, she is assumed to fill only subordinate, supporting roles. The male domination of field work and the lack of substantive research about the folkloric black woman have perpetuated these assumptions In this dissertation, I intend to alter this situation by identifying and discussing folktales that contain black women as principal characters. Additionally, I shall analyze these tales and characters with the aid of techniques from the fields of anthropology, English, history, and sociology. Such perspectives will provide an interdisciplinary treatment of the folktales. Explanations of world view or cultural group identity, literary themes and style, historical validity, and socialization and role-specific definitions will help to support my identification of the black woman as a major folkloric character Sixty-one folktales form the foundation for this investigation. In order to document the contextual information suggested by the content of the tales, I use primary and secondary sources from the disciplines cited earlier. This procedure follows the method of 'identification and interpretation,' a recent development in folklore analysis. Upon identifying the major roles portrayed by black women, I establish that two general categories, familial and religious tales, cover most of the positions assumed by women characters in folktales. Within each category, I identify behavioral or role types and discuss the contexts in which those activities or personalities could be documented. Both of the divisions of the tales contain role models or behavior patterns My findings indicate that the image of the precontemporary black woman is composed of many more sociocultural components than previously assumed. She is, indeed, a major character in folklore, as determined by my social scientific and literary analyses. Both traditional and non-traditional portrayals establish a folk figure that is just as colorful and well-developed as the male character who has been popularized since the period of American slavery. The results of my study can have significant bearing on placing some perspective on current issues concerning the roles of the American black woman