Children's Literature, Infancy to Early Adolescence

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 06.03.09

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Overview
  2. Objectives
  3. Strategies
  4. Classroom Activities
  5. Bibliography
  6. Appendices/ Standards
  7. Endnotes

Using African and African-American Folktales in a Genre Study

Rita A. Sorrentino

Published September 2006

Tools for this Unit:

Overview

Stories are equipment for living.

- Kenneth Burke

From their origins in oral traditions, stories have been the vehicles for transmitting culture, preserving memories and making sense of the world. From the lips of skillful storytellers to the attentive ears and open hearts of their listeners, these tales fostered a sense of identity, communicated values, and provided education and entertainment. In this unit I will examine storytelling through folktales, the stories that originated from the lives and experiences of people — the "folk." As these stories were told over and over from one generation to the next and traveled across countries and continents, they were treasured as cultural necessities and, therefore, equipment for living.

On one hand the vitality of the folktales resides within their social and geographic context. By understanding the land and language, people and places, customs and changes associated with them, we can appreciate their origins and later distributions over time and place. For these reasons, we will study the background of the folktales to gain cultural information and insights. On the other hand, folktales evolve. They are not static. Their fluid nature is their key to survival. Different listeners can be attracted to the same story for different reasons. Whether explaining phenomena, relating news, enforcing laws or instructing children, these stories are told entertainingly. To explore their entertainment value, we will examine different types of folktales, the relationship between storyteller and listener, and the use of today's technology to preserve and promote storytelling.

I intend to use this unit of study during the month of February as part of our school's celebration of Black History Month. The unit will be a partnership of language arts and technology. This four-week curriculum is designed for primary students in grades 1-3 but can certainly be fleshed out for upper elementary students in fourth and fifth grades. The class consists of 30 inner-city students in a multi-age classroom. They have experience using the computer and most of the applications mentioned in this unit.

The reading and studying of African and African-American folktales will help students make connections to their cultural heritage. They will gain an appreciation of the rich traditions that Africans carried to America during their time of slavery, their efforts to manage relationships in their new environment, and their ability to find humor amid struggles and sorrow.

Rationale

Storytelling leads children to books, and reading and listening to folktales will lay the foundation for studying elements of literature in a variety of genres. In "Helping Children Understand Literary Genres," Carl Smith argues that folktales make an excellent and effective starting point for children because they are a clear and uncomplicated form of literature.1 By reading and analyzing several sample folktales, young children can quickly develop a schema for this literary genre and later apply these thinking skills to other literary engagements.

Folktales appeal to children. The introduction is uncomplicated, the plot is action-packed and the conclusion is satisfying. While enjoying the humor, the rhythm and the repetition of these stories, children can relate to the struggles and antics of everyday life. Folktales invite children to journey to other places and join hands with heroes and heroines who inspire them to be creative, confident and courageous. When good triumphs over evil, their world is safe, secure and satisfying.

To learn how a community's culture is expressed in part through its stories, students will respond to selected folktales. They will come to terms with values by questioning what the characters learned in the story, and if and how it applies to their lives. They will evaluate why it was important to keep retelling the story. They will develop a sense of culture by identifying the country and language of origin, considering what experiences would lead to a story like this. They will also determine whether the story reveals information about the community's games, celebrations, heroes and treatment of old/young people. They will look into what the relationships in the story reveal by asking how problems were solved, who contributed to the solution, and if this strategy can be useful to us. They will determine whether the time and place of the story give information about location and landscape while also deciding what part of the story transcends time and place.2

As Jane Yolen points out in Favorite Folktales From Around the World, stories are powerful, fostering compassion and humanness. They are both history and mystery. As they carry the joys and sorrows, bruises and embraces of the societies in which they dwelt, they give us clues to open the doors to our self.3

As the term itself suggests, folktales are tales told by common people, not "litterateurs." They are originally spoken stories, not written ones. Today we may read folktales because they are collected in books, but their language still remains folksy, conversational, and often enhanced with regional dialect.4

Modern technologies continue to extend the way folktales are told and retold, and these same technologies also offer new opportunities to collect, organize, and share information about the origins and diffusion of folktales.

Technology and Literacy

In today's classrooms, technology is the bridge between instruction and production. Technology fosters creative and critical thinking for students and provides tools that support their learning across the curriculum. With the right tool for the right task, technology helps students reinforce essential learning skills. In this unit I plan for students to use Internet resources to research and read and/or listen to specific folktales, to use technology to record their retellings of a tale for other classrooms, and to publish a podcast as a culminating project.

Multimedia projects are an engaging way for students to express their knowledge in any subject area. Software applications are now easy to use, providing students with powerful features. Students master basic skills, such as researching, reading, writing, speaking and listening. Digital media enhance ownership, support collaboration and problem solving, and widen the audience for student work. The use of technology brings us full circle in coming to terms with purpose. Just as folktales were entertaining stories with lessons to be learned, technology can be used to entertain as learning is engaged.

In our school we use the Macintosh computers that are equipped with the iLife suite, enabling students to incorporate sights and sounds into projects. Since we are focusing on the oral tradition of storytelling, I intend to make use of the GarageBand and iTunes applications to bring the excitement of digital music and other audio content to enhance students' projects on folktales. With GarageBand students can create, perform, and record original music for recording a podcast. This adds a new and exciting dimension to learning.

Background Information

Folktales should be understood as one of the many forms of folklore. However, folklore is easier to experience than define. In general terms, folklore stands for the oral transmission of cultural materials. The word folklore was coined in 1846 by the English antiquary William John Thomas to replace "popular antiquities," the phrase commonly used to describe folk traditions. His recommendation found fertile ground and within a year folklore became a household word in England.5

Although some might be tempted to dismiss folklore as old-fashioned or uneducated, folklore is a central part of life in the present, connecting us to the past and guiding us to the future. On its website, The American Folklore Society lists several definitions and descriptions of folklore that communicate the range of materials that come under this heading. I choose this one for its breadth and depth:

Folklore is traditional. Its center holds. Changes are slow and steady. Folklore is variable. The tradition remains wholly within the control of its practitioners. It is theirs to remember, change, or forget. Answering the needs of the collective for continuity and of the individual for active participation, folklore…is that which is at once traditional and variable. (Henry Glassie. The Spirit of Folk Art. New York: Abrams, 1989)6

Folklore includes the related literary genres of myth, fairy tales, folktales, tall tales, fables, and legends. The boundaries between them are fluid and oftentimes folklore narratives are mixed genres. In his book Folk and Fairy Tales, D. L. Ashliman points out that scholars of folk narratives divide their stories into three main categories or genres: myths, legends, and folktales with possible subdivisions under each group. He offers explanations for each type.7

In my first lesson of the unit, I will have students explore the everyday folklore they experience in schoolyard games. We will make connections to the role of oral tradition in passing down customs from one group of people to another, such as holiday traditions, food preparation, sayings and stories. I will use the following definitions and explanations in my introductory PowerPoint presentation and invite students to think of examples as we progress.

Myths

Myths are sacred stories set in the remote past that establishes a context for humans within the cosmos. They deal with the great issues of life. They define our relationship with supernatural powers as they tell the beginnings of things or how things came into being. The characters in myths, humans, supernatural beings and animals, are believed to be real. The issues of myths are also those of religion: origin and purpose, good and evil, life and death. Because they express beliefs, myths are often told during sacred occasions and ceremonies. Prometheus and Pandora are examples of myth.

Legends

Legends, like myths, are explanatory stores presented as truth. However, they are human-centered and set in places that are recognizable. Legends may be wholly imaginary or relate accounts of historical people. They are typically told in everyday language. King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table is an example of legend.

Fables

Fables are stories known for their brevity and didactic nature. Told in prose or verse, they convey a moral truth. The characters of a fable are usually animals playing humanlike roles while retaining their animal traits. Aesop's Fables are the most famous in this category.

Folktales

Whereas myths and legends were considered to be true by their originators and tellers, folktales are, for the most part, fictitious. They are less profound and less authoritative than myths, but they, too, offer answers to life's questions and provide a venue for talking about issues of concern.

Fairytales

Folktales and fairytales are usually treated as two different kinds of narrative prose. However, folklore specialists consider fairytales to be a subcategory of folktales and prefer to call them magic tales. These tales contain a consistent schema of separation, initiation and return. Fairy tale characters give their readers access to a parallel world where magic is natural and expected. They are timeless tales representing the viewpoint of only one leading character. Hans Christian Andersen and the Grimm brothers are the names most associated with fairy tales. The tales of Hans Christian Andersen's are mostly pure invention while the Grimm brothers used material from other sources.8

Students would find it interesting to look for the structure of separation, initiation and return in familiar fairytales. They can certainly recall how Hansel and Gretel were left in the woods to fend for themselves. The initiation stage in many fairy tales is full of conflict and, interestingly, holds different paths for male and female characters. The heroines endure overwhelming domestic tasks like Cinderella or passive captivity like Rapunsel. On the other hand, heroes are required to exhibit strength and valor in responding to daunting challenges during the initiation stage. Upon return to a new community, the heroes and heroines assume a position of power. Students will be encouraged to look for occurrences of these elements in the folktales we read.

Tall Tales

Tall tales are narratives that mix fantasy and exaggeration with fact. The hero or heroine is a larger-than-life character with a specific task to accomplish. Characters use everyday language and may be actual people or a composite of people. They are always bigger or stronger than real people even when the character is based on a real person. John Henry and Pecos Bill are examples of tall tales.

Approaches to Studying Folktales

The elements and structure of folktales appear in cultures throughout the world. The recognition of these similarities by scholars brought forth attempts to organize comparative folktale research and to trace tales back to their most likely beginnings. It will not be relevant to the teaching of young children to make all of these distinctions clear, but I do want them to understand that there is more than one kind of story, and where appropriate I will point out differences among types, drawing for these purposes on the distinctions I am making here.

Classification by Type

In 1928 American folklorist Stith Thompson expanded the pioneering work of a Finnish scholar Antti Aarne, and published The Types of the Folktale. Using numbers 1 through 2,499, the Aarne-Thompson index defines traditional plots and assigns a type number to each. The type is categorized as a traditional tale that has an independent existence. It does not depend on any other tale for its meaning. These are referred to as A-T types and provide great assistance to scholars in their investigations of folktales.9

Animal Tales are the first category of the A-T classification containing 299 types. In these non-mythical stories, wild or domestic animals speak, reason, and behave like humans. The animal characters usually correspond to stereotypes, such as a clever fox, an industrious ant, a faithful dog, and a stupid bear. Humor usually accompanies the deception and the absurd predicaments that result from stupidity.10

Ordinary Tales are the second category of the A-T classification and contain types 300-1199. The name "ordinary" is misleading. These include but are not limited to magic (fairy), supernatural, superhuman, religious, and romantic tales. Their main features are formularized language, supernatural motifs and sympathy for the underdog. Although the plots of these tales may contain royal characters and magical transportation, the language remains folksy.

Jokes and Anecdotes are the third and final category of the A-T classifications and contain types 1200-2499. These include numskull, formula tales, tales of lying, and stories about girls, boys and married couples. This section contains humorous stories characterized by short and simple plots in realistic settings.

In this unit we will deal mostly with animal tales. However, according to the A-T classifications, many animal tales are considered fables. Consequently we will discuss this in the introductory lesson when students are sorting types of folklore. The trickster tales according to A-T classification belong to the Joke and Anecdotes category. This will provide a good example of overlapping genres in folklore.

Classification by Motif and Function

Besides the classification of type, Stith Thompson has also described, categorized and numbered about 40,000 motifs in folk literature. A motif is the smallest element of a story that persists in the oral tradition because of its unusual or striking power. Most motifs fall into three classes: Actors (gods, unusual animals, or marvelous creatures), items in the background of the action (magic objects, unusual customs, strange beliefs), and single incidents (a ballroom in a palace, a journey, tricking an opponent).11

Another important contribution comes from Vladimir Propp, a renowned Russian folklorist. In his Morphology of the Folktale, published in Russia in 1928 and first translated in 1958, Propp provided an analytical tool for examining folktales. Rather than focusing on that which differentiates one tale from another, he concentrates on the similarities of story structure and story grammar. He theorized that folktales follow a specific formula, with as many as thirty-one narrative functions, used in each story occurring in sequence. Functions are stable elements (plots) in the story that never change. According to Propp, a tale may skip functions but it cannot change their order. By comparing the relationship of these components to each other and to the whole, he concludes that, ultimately all folktales tell the same story. 12

Since folktales are short pieces of literature, the students will gain experience in recognizing motifs and elements. Students will be guided to identify several of the thirty-one elements, such as departure, guidance, struggle, victory, return, and recognition. In the tales we read they will also look for such motifs as trickery, consequences of greed, journey, helper characters, foolishness, repetitive tasks, and importance of threes. In recognizing these motifs and story elements, students can apply them to other types of literature, movies, and video games.

Theories and Approaches

The Monogenesis (single origin) Theory claims that all folktales were descended from the myths of Indo-Europeans or Aryans. The Polygenesis (many origins) Theory argues that people everywhere have the same experiences and develop the same stories.

In the field of psychology, Freud believed that folktales came from unconscious needs and frustrations that best expressed themselves through a person's dreams. Symbolic images that disguise painful material make the dream more acceptable even to the sleeping person. On the other hand, Jung proposed that folktales grew from our "collective unconscious" experiences that were embedded in the psyche of all humans. The stories that grew out of those experiences are found among all people. In understanding folktales with the psychological approach, the interpreter can analyze the psychology behind the storyteller's creative process, including the recollection of old tales, or analyze the motivation of the characters in the story.13

The sociological interest in folktales is twofold. First there is the sociology "of" storytelling itself: the gathering of an audience for the purpose of hearing stories, the process of collecting stories for publication, and decisions to make changes in the stories.

Secondly, there is the sociology "in" folktales, focused when we use these texts for studying social relationships. Although the folktales feature individual characters rather than groups of people, social organizations are implied in the background. Religion also permeates folktales in which storytellers are quick to ridicule unworthy priests and target hypocrisy.14

The anthropological approach claims that folktales were remnants of ancient narratives that explained and accompanied fertility rites, and were used as moral lessons that society wanted its people to learn. The aesthetic approach is interested in the story's impact on today's audience. What makes the folktales pleasing? Scholars study the rhythmical language, vivid images, and observations of human behavior. For them our emotional involvement with the characters in the story becomes more important than the origins, diffusions, and classifications of the tales. 15

Each of the above theories holds a piece of the truth. No one theory has been proven to be wholly valid for all cases. Although students will not have to deal with the terminology of the above approaches, they will learn that folktales exist all over the world and were carried from place to place as groups of people moved and settled in other areas. As they read and interpret the folktales, students will decide what lesson or moral is being taught and how the characters in the stories help us learn something about our behaviors and emotions.

Folktales for Curriculum Unit

African Folktales

Stories from Africa were traditionally passed down by word of mouth. Usually the stories taught a lesson, and frequently a person learned the lesson the hard way. Many African folktales depict the antics of a trickster figure endowed with human qualities, whose mischievous ways are to be laughed at and learned from. The trickster figure in many "Asante" tales from Ghana is Ananse, the spider. Storytellers treat these characters as familiar family or friends and their names change one moment to the next. For example, the trickster, Spider, may be called Anansi, Nancy, Aunt Nancy, and Buh Nancy. Interestingly, word play brings the name close to "nasty" and "nonsense," which can both be used to describe the trickster's behavior.16

These stories hold a place of honor, but not merely because they present "strategies for survival." More importantly, they present the world as a contest between strength and wit. They remind us all to be on guard for the tricksters in our midst. They also beckon us to admire those who outwit the oppressor. The message of the trickster's tale resonates with the African belief that life is celebrated more fully through the dramatizing of opposites. Vitality and inventiveness are values passed on through African storytelling.17

African-American Folktales

The slaves brought their ancient storytelling habits to their new environment. The telling of tales not only helped them to pass their time or entertain the master's children, the stories they told served to communicate via symbols theirs experiences, hopes, and fears. Although the masters tried to rid the slaves of their tribal language and customs, they accepted story telling, especially animal tales, as harmless. Consequently, the African jackal survived as the American fox, the African hare as the American rabbit, and the African tortoise as the American turtle. The spider, Ananse, reached the West Indies. The American wolf replaced the hyena, the African villain. Lions, leopards, tigers, and monkeys retained their identity.18

The Uncle Remus tales, originally written down by Joel Chandler Harris, provide an important collection of African-American folklore. However, they are criticized for Harris's use of an exaggerated thick dialect and the perpetuation of racial stereotypes through the fictitious character of Uncle Remus, a contented slave eager to serve and entertain white people. The difficult-to-read dialect challenges readers of all ages and the stereotypes and racial issues taint the tales. Nevertheless, the stories, beyond Harris's intention and presentation, are a vital source of African-American folktales and culture.

Julius Lester, in his retelling of these folktales, makes these wonderful stories available in language and imagery acceptable today. Julius Lester eliminated Harris's fictional character, Uncle Remus, and changed the difficult-to-read dialect to accessible language for the contemporary reader. Lester's work is an outstanding contribution to children's literature that exemplifies his reverence for the past and respect for the folk tradition in particular.19

John Henry

Although the story of John Henry is usually read as a tall tale, it is partly based on historical circumstance. Some claim John Henry's origins were in West Virginia, while more recent research suggests Alabama. Still, researchers believe that John Henry was born a slave in the 1840's or 1850's. According to the legend he grew to stand 6 feet tall, 200 pounds - a giant in that day.

In order to construct the railroads, companies hired thousands of men to cut through obstacles that stood in the way of the proposed tracks. One such task was the blasting of the Big Bend Tunnel — more than a mile straight through a mountain in West Virginia.

Men like John Henry used large hammers and stakes to pound holes into the rock for explosives that would blast a hole deeper and deeper into the mountain. Some tunnel engineers started using steam drills to power their way into the rock. John Henry challenged the steam drill to a contest. He won, but died of exhaustion, his life cut short by his own superhuman effort.20

During our celebration of Black History Month, the story of John Henry will help students make connection to their rich cultural heritage. Students can compare John Henry to other folk heroes, even those that are small in stature.

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