“Florida, the inner melting
pot of the great melting pot
America.” --ZNH
INVESTIGATING THE FOLKLORE TRADITION
Zora Neale Hurston's fiction sings (sometimes literally!) with the sounds, songs, and
stories of the Southern black folk tradition. Their Eyes Were Watching God, often
acclaimed Hurston's masterpiece, is perhaps the richest beneficiary of her work as a
folklorist: its evocation of picking in the jook joint (bar), playing the dozens (spoken
insult game, think “roasting”), and petitioning root doctors (doctors who used roots,
potion, and spell remedies) shows a compelling combination of cultural reality and
lively setting and characterization.
Why is this important?
• Relationship between place, tradition, history, and story (purpose & audience)
• To understand both as formal analysts of voice and style and as historians of
literature the crucial role of oral folklore in Hurston’s writing
• This will help us to better understand/analyze TEWWG and write our own folktale
THE BASICS OF FOLKLORE
•
Culture
• Everything that human beings do that isn’t motivated solely by natural
instinct
• Sleeping is a natural instinct, sleeping using a pillow is cultural
• Describes groups of individuals who share common cultural traits but who
differ in some way(s) from members of other such groups
•
Tradition
• Meaningful cultural behavior (or lore) that exhibits continuity in time–
often over several generations– and continuity in space (or among the
folk, because by space we mean the people within a folk group)
•
Narrative
• A story of any kind involving both plot and characters
THE BASICS OF FOLKLORE
•
Orality
• A quality of anything that is spoken, chanted, recited, sung, or read
aloud rather than written down or read quietly. Most folktales are oral
in nature, or were once upon a time.
• Why does oral language matter?
• Oral language shows a conversation which contains more than just
the written word. In oral language, it is easier to hear voice.
•
Performance
• An essential artistic dimension of orality
• The traditional rendition of a piece of folklore
• Includes features such as tone of voice, dynamics, pacing, interaction
with an audience, gestures, and costume
DEFINING FOLKLORE
•
Folklore
• The traditional beliefs, myths, tales, and
practices of a people
• These beliefs have usually been spread
from person to person in an informal
matter, such as word of mouth
•
Folk or Folk Group
• Any two or more people who share at least
one significant cultural thing in common
•
Lore or Traditional Culture
• Traditional behavior or material shared by
members of a folk group
• E.g. narratives, costumes, beliefs, customs,
music, dance
REVISITING GENRE
• Genre
• A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature,
characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter
• Within the Folklore tradition, there are many genres…
• Folktales
• Folk song
• Folk art
DEFINING FOLKTALE
•
Folktale
• A story or legend forming part of an oral tradition. Folktales possess many
or all of the following characteristics:
• Generally part of the oral tradition of a group
• Passed down from one generation to another
• Take on the characteristics of the time and place in which they are told
• Sometimes take on the personality of the storyteller
• Speak to universal and timeless themes
• Try to make sense of our existence, help humans cope with the world,
or explain the origin of something
TYPES OF FOLKTALES
•
Tall Tale
• An extravagant, fanciful, or greatly exaggerate story
• Usually focuses on the achievements of the ultimate hero
•
Myth
• Traditional, typically ancient stories dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or
heroes that serves as a fundamental type in the worldview of a people
•
Legend
• A traditional tale handed down from earlier times and believed to have a historical basis
•
Fable
• A short narrative making a moral point
• Often employs animals with human characteristics as the main characters
•
Fairy tale
• A fanciful tale of legendary deeds and creatures usually intended for children
THE FOLKLORE TRADITION & ZORA
X
•
The Federal Writer’s Project (FWP)
• A U.S. federal government project to fund written work and support
writers during the Great Depression
• Part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal program
• FDR and the 3 R’s: Relief, Recovery, and Reform
•
FWP creates the Joint Committee on Folk Arts
• Planned an expedition to the southeastern United States to record the
songs and stories that WPA workers had uncovered
• Zora’s name was brought up to cover Florida due to her extensive
knowledge of the state
THE FOLKLORE TRADITION & ZORA
•
•
X
“Proposed Recording Expedition Into the Floridas”
• Response to the request of FWP
• A synthesis of what Hurston termed “the inner melting pot of the great
melting pot America”
• Divides Florida into four sub-regions:
• The tobacco and corn growing area of northwest Florida
• The maritime and shipping district of the eastern seaboard
• The vegetable growing lands of central Florida
• The foreign culture area of south Florida
Each sub-region reveals a unique influence of place, tradition, history and
story
“PROPOSED RECORDING EXPEDITION INTO THE FLORIDAS”
AREA II
De Cap’n can’t read, de Cap’n can’t write
How does he know that the time is right?
I asked me Cap’n what de time of day
He got mad and throwed his watch away.
(Sung by Willie Joe Roberts, Jacksonville, FL.)
X
“PROPOSED RECORDING EXPEDITION INTO THE FLORIDAS”
AREA II
X
From the St. Mary’s River, which is the Georgia Florida boundary line, to Gainesville on
the south and from Lake City to the Atlantic Ocean is northeast Florida.
In this area we have a conglomerate of many cultures. There is the Georgia Alabama
“Cracker” with his farms and cows, his old-English traditions and ways. But here also are
the descendants of the great old English, French, and Spanish families and their
monuments and culture.
***
In this same area there are men like old “Pap” Drummond of Fernandina who tell tales of
the pirates who roamed the Spanish Main and tell of buried treasures. Pap Drummond
lives in his shack on the outskirts of Fernandina with his “family” of rattlesnakes rustling
now and then in their dugout near at hand, and draws a long bow on the lawless men of
the skull and crossbones of yesteryear. He claims to have aided in the last recovery of
pirate treasure.
The term "Cracker," while now more widely known as a derogatory term for rural
whites, has a more specific--and less insulting--definition in Florida. The Florida Crackers
are whites of Celtic descent who first settled South Florida around the mid-eighteenth
century. Crackers usually migrated to the Florida Everglades from Alabama, Georgia, and
the Carolinas, drawn to the fertile land for ranching and farming, and to the peninsula's
plentiful resources for fishing.
“PROPOSED RECORDING EXPEDITION INTO THE FLORIDAS”
SUMMARY
X
There is not a state in the Union with as much to record in a musical, folklore,
social-ethnic way as Florida has… No other state in the Union has had the
history of races blended and contending. Nowhere else is there such a variety
of materials. Florida is still a frontier with its varying elements still
unassimilated. There is still an opportunity to observe the wombs of folk
culture still heavy with life. Recordings in Florida will be like backtracking a
large part of the United States, Europe, and Africa, for these elements have
been attracted here and brought a gift to Florida culture each in its own way.
The drums throb: Africa by way of Haiti and Martinique; Africa by way of
Central and South America. Old Spain speaks through many interpreters. Old
England speaks through black, white, and intermediate lips. Florida, the inner
melting pot of the great melting pot America.
WHAT’S YOUR STORY?
•
Assignment: create your own folktale
• Our focus for the assignment:
• Folklore
• Characters and story
• Language use
•
Why folktales?
• “I write to discover what I know” –Flannery O’Connor
• Our folklore tradition helps us to find our voice in writing
• Voice in writing is a highly regarded and impressive skill that will aid in
your success on both the AP exam and writing in general
BRAINSTORMING-- FOLK
•
What folk traditions and folk groups do you belong to?
• Remember the definition of a folk group
• Two or more people who share one common factor
•
Instructions:
• Write down at least 10 folk groups that you belong to
•
Some ideas
• Gender
• Family
• Class
• Age
• Interests
BRAINSTORMING-- LORE
• Looking at your list of folk groups, identify different
traditions that unite that specific folk group
• If you can, categorize the different traditions or lore
• Folk narrative
• Folk beliefs
• Folk costumes
YOUR FOLKLORE TRADITION
•
Looking at your Folk and Lore brainstorming…
• Create a folktale by first identifying the following components
• Folklore
• Purpose, audience, and setting
• Evidence or history of a folk group (folk) and their traditions (lore)
• Characters and story
• Social relationships, conflicts, dialogue and narrative
• Language use
• Style, voice, orality, language conventions (punctuation, grammar)
• Overall, keep in mind the place, tradition, history, and story
FOLKTALE ASSIGNMENT
Component 1: Your folktale (Due on _____date of your performance____)
• 1-2 pages in length (typed is preferred, handwritten accepted)
• Your folktale—write to discover what you know from your folklore
 Folklore
 Purpose, audience, and setting
 Evidence or history of a folk group (folk) and their traditions (lore)
 Characters and Story
 Social relationships, conflicts, dialogue and narrative
 Language use
 Style, voice, orality, language conventions (punctuation, grammar)
Component 2: Your performance (W March 11 and R March 12)
• Oral performance and presentation of your folktale
 Your performance should be 2-4 minutes in length (no more, no less—it is crucial that you time
yourself and practice your performance)
 Consider features such as tone of voice, dynamics, pacing, interaction with an audience,
gestures, and costume
 Language use should be appropriate to the style of your folktale
Tonight, decide which performance date you prefer.*
At the start of class tomorrow (T), you will sign up for your
performance date on a first come, first served basis.
*No makeups will be given without an excused absence
form.
FOR HOMEWORK: TEWWG CHAPTER 6 ANALYSIS
• Look at Chapter 6 and the story of Matt Bonner’s mule
• Folklore
• What makes this story a folktale?
• What type of folktale is this story? Why?
• What does this story show us about folk and lore?
• Characters and Story
• What does the mule reveal about the people of the town?
• What does this story reveal about Joe? About Janie?
• Language Use
• Where do you notice style, voice, and orality? What is the
purpose?
“Florida, the inner melting
pot of the great melting pot
America.” --ZNH
THE FOLKLORE TRADITION
• Define the following:
• Folk
• Lore
• Orality
• Why study folklore and/or folktales?
• What do we learn or understand by studying folklore
and/or folktales?
CHAPTER 6: THE STORY OF MATT BONNER’S MULE
A. Folklore
• What makes this story a folktale?
• What type of folktale is this story? Why?
• What does this story show us about folk and lore?
B. Characters and Story
• What does the mule reveal about the people of the town?
• What does this story reveal about Joe? About Janie?
C. Language Use
• Where do you notice style, voice, and orality? What is the
purpose?
INVESTIGATING THE FOLKTALE FORM
• Today, you will investigate the folktale form by reading
three folktales and focusing on the following
components:
Folklore
Characters and Story
Language use
• This analysis work will help you when crafting your
own folktale in the coming days