To prepare for where we’re going next, look at the two Amos And Andy presentations on this page.
Amos and Andy: The Lion Tamer
Uncle Remus. How does Joel Chandler Harris' Image of the black compare with the Amos and Andy image?
We’re going to take a little break from Rourke this week, and pursue the idea of black humor a little further. We’ll be returning to black humor more than once in the weeks that follow. We’re going to be investigating white creators of “black” humor and black creators (and recorders–some of what we’ll look at are literary creations recording folk tales) and see what we can discover about the types represented. Be warned that there are stereotypes galore here... Recognize that even if you don’t find some of this material funny persons consumed it for amusement’s sake in sufficient quantities to provide good livings for the creators.
For Monday, September 27
Read, in Watkins, African American Humor
Forward (Dick Gregory)xi -xiii
Introductionxvii - xxv
In I. Animal Tales and Rhymes
The Stories of Joel Chandler Harris:5-16
Uncle Remus Initiates the Little Boy
The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story
Why Mr. Possum Loves Peace
How Mr. Rabbit Was Too Sharp for Mr. Fox
Mr. Rabbit Grossly Deceives Mr. Fox
Mr. Fox is Again Victimized
You’ve had a chance to watch the Walt Disney version of the Tar Baby Story on the class web page from last week. Do you notice any difference between the characters as portrayed in the cartoon and as you might imagine them from the story?
If we think of these stories as “fables”–rather like Aesop’s fables, we would expect to find a “moral” at the end...a short lesson to be learned.
In your Journal...write a “moral” for as many of these stories as you can. Who does Mr. Rabbit Represent? Who does Mr. Fox Represent? Mr. Possum? What do you think?
To learn more about Joel Chandler Harris visit the website provided by the American Studies Department at the University of Virginia.
For Thursday, September 30
Read, in Russell Baker,
Four short tales by Zora Neale Hurston:
Talking Mule Story 453 - 454
Competition for a Girl454 - 455
Woman’s Strength Story455 - 458
Squinch Owl Story458 - 459
in Watkins
Also by Hurston, “Why Women Got the Advantage of Men"134 - 138
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By the time Zola Neale Hurston starts collecting and publishing black humor we begin to see the “war of the sexes” through the eyes of black women. We’ll encounter a number of black women humorists in this course. I think you’re going to enjoy them. What I’d like to see here is how some of the situations we’ve seen in previous tales gets its own spin as the gender and race of the narrator changes. For example, you’ve already read about a sort of “competition” for a girl in the writings of Augustus Baldwin Longstreet. How does this stack up against “Competition for a Girl” as you see it above. Record your views on this in your journal.
Hurston was one of the noted figures in what is known as the Harlem Renaissance. More about that later. For the present, read a bit about her and her works at the Voices from the Gaps website at the University of Minnesota.
