From folklore to fiction
Subtitle: a study of folk heroes and rituals in the Black American novel
By: H. Nigel Thomas.
Series: Contributions in Afro-American and African studies,; no. 118
Publisher: Greenwood Press
Published: 1988
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 200
Subjects: American fiction -- African American authors -- History and criticism.; Literature and folklore -- United States.; African Americans -- Intellectual life.; Rites and ceremonies in literature.; African Americans in literature.; African Americans -- Folklore.; Folklore in literature.; Heroes in literature.
Description: "Learn it to the younguns" : Passing on folk wisdom / Daryl Cumber Dance -- Chapter 1 - Afro-American folklore : Identification and interpretation -- Preliminary remarks -- Religious folklore -- Secular musical lore -- Secular spoken lore -- Superstitions and conjure -- Chapter 2 - Preachers and bad niggers -- The black preacher -- Bad niggers -- John Henry -- Black Moses -- The bad bad nigger -- Chapter 3 - Tricksters -- Influences on the Afro-American trickster tradition -- Chesnutt to Ellison -- The late fifties and beyond -- Chapter 4 - Rituals -- Defining rituals -- Uncertain transmission : James Weldon Johnson -- The people's idiom - The Harlem Renaissance : Hughes -- Enlarging the perspective : Wright, Walker, Ellison, Baldwin, Marshall -- Toward globalism : Forrest -- Conclusion -- Bibliography.
Notes: Bibliography: p. [181]-194.
Includes index.