Oral History,
Reading 1

Choose one.
1) What are Jennifer's responses as an outsider?   How does the author position you as a reader in relation to Jennifer and her relatives?   What conclusions can you draw about this insider/outsider relationship?
2) Using the sketchy definitions of "folklore" (from the handout), select some element of the Black Rock/Hoot Owl Holler culture you think could be "folklore."   What is it?   What and how does it communicate within the community?
3) How does the characters' language use affect your reading of the book and/or your reading of the culture (in its fictional representation)?

Find an example of a folk narrative to bring in to class. You are not required to write anything about the example, but please have a copy of the it to hand in (print it out, copy it from a collection, etc.).

Reading Journal Response
Choose One.
1) Write about a specific joke or other form of narrative that you think requires a certain audience. What does this audience have that makes the narrative meaningful to it? What is the meaning? What is the context in which it's told? Why is the context (or why is it not) important to the telling of the narrative?
2) Goodwin provides several examples to show how the sharing of topical humor has been affected by technology. Technology has also affected the sharing of other types of narratives. Do you think that technology is likely to change the audience or "blur" the boundaries of the group that shares the narrative? Why or why not? (an example might help you explain)
3) "Topical jokes" require knowledge of current events. What other kinds of jokes require a certain knowledge base (and/or attitudes about something)? What type of knowledge? Use at least one example to illustrate your answer. What does this tell you about "joking" as a cultural behavior?
4) As I'm sure you are aware, many jokes are shared in particular contexts, and/or with particular audiences. What does that tell you about the boundaries of groups? How and why are they formed in terms of joking? Use specific examples. Goodwin mentions "migratory" jokes. What are they? What do they tell you about humor and the way it works?
5) Goodwin mentions "migratory" jokes.   What are they? What do they tell you about humor and the way it works?

Oral History, Reading 2

Choose one.
1) Who (according to Richard) are the "more genteel citizens of Black Rock" (121)?   Do you agree they're more genteel?   What's their position in the town?   Do attitudes toward them differ depending on who is thinking/talking about them?
2) Write about the Freewill Followers (137)--the effects of them on Richard Burlage or how Smith uses them as a reflection of and/or insight to the community.
3) Write about academic knowledge and cultural knowledge--differences between them, how Smith presents them, how they affect characters, etc.
4) Explore Almarine and Richard Burlage's love relationships.   What do they say about individual characters, the cultures/communities they come from, connections Smith is making between characters, etc.?

Choose one.
1) Part III has multiple narrators (again!!).   Many of the narrators present information and/or characters' attitudes about Richard (including, perhaps, the information provided by Richard himself).   What picture do they paint of him?   Is your opinion of him different after knowing others views of his actions rather than just knowing his side of the story? If so, how?  If not, why? Use specific examples to illustrate your response.
2) Also, in Part III, we are presented with some more very specific elements of the culture's "lore."   Examine one of these (below or others that you notice as you read) and analyze what community belief it conveys, how it communicates and/or reinforces that belief, and what it suggests about the community.
•  Jink's rite of passage into manhood
•  community stories of the curse/haunting (you may want to address the presence of these in Parts I& II to show the transmission of and variation in them over time...or not)
•  the jokes/stories/songs performed by the men of the community
3) What does Jink's section tell us about him?   Language (again) is key to this, I think. (You may compare his language use to that of others...or you can talk about his section without examining the language specifically.)
4) We learn about Ora Mae's "gift" (208) in this section.   Why doesn't she want to use it?   What is the community legacy of the "gift"?   What does it entail?   (or some such analysis of the gift as it relates to Ora Mae or others)

Choose One.
1) In Part IV, we learn about Dory's death and the life and death of Pearl, Jennifer's mother. Their deaths seem to continue the idea of the curse. How? Now that the story is being told by a contemporary narrator, does your attitude about the curse/haunting (in the world of the novel) change? If so, how? If not, why? You may also want to consider what the haunting/curse means to the larger community, outside the Cantrell family.
2) Trace something that you consider "folklore" through the entire novel. Explain what the "text" is and who practices it and/or acts in response to it. Analyze, arguing for its significance within the community. (This could be a superstition, a story, a language practice, etc.)
3) The final few pages of the novel bring us back to Jennifer and her surviving relatives. (I realize I've included a lot of "sub-questions" here. Answer the ones that strike you as most interesting or fruitful. You may not be able to deal with all of them if you want to develop your response with examples--which you should do.) What has Jennifer learned through her "oral history" collection?   Does it seem that she has gained any sense of her family or cultural identity? How do you think Lee Smith wants us to see Jennifer in this scene? Do we, as readers, understand her culture better than she does? If so, why?
4) Of course, if there is something that you have been thinking about as you've read the novel that isn't covered in these questions, please, write about it! As long as you include specific examples and focus your point, a topic that intrigues you will make a fine reading response.

Choose one topic or artfully combine more than one topic in a developed response.   Note that (the nature of) your choice determines when your response is due.

1) What does Santino's experience suggest about the role of the researcher in researching a real, live group of people of which the researcher is not a "full" member?   (there are several different directions in which you can take this--how does it change the researcher's strategies? what does s/he have to do to elicit the most "authentic" data? what are "safe" ways of analyzing such texts to suggest something about a group? ...etc.)
2) Analyze Santino's examples looking at the texts in the different telling situations (contexts) and come up with an explanation for the presentation style that makes a general claim about performer-audience relationships.
3) What does telling ghost stories really have to do with belief within particular communities?   You may consider texts we've read this quarter or other example(s) to illustrate your response.

4) Transcribe a story (ghost or other) you hear told in a particular group and analyze it in the context of its telling.   Consider how and/or why it might be told differently in a different context if you think that's a valuable way to analyze its importance (as Santino does in the article) or merely look at how you think it functions in the particular context (time/space/audience) in which it is told. (Remember the different types of context in the "Folk Narratives" reading.)
5) What are some possible uses of or types of occupational lore?   Use an example familiar to you to answer this: theorize about the occupational lore of your own job or that of someone you know.

Choose one.
1) Compare Elijah Pierce's work to the artwork of Minnie Evans, of The Angel that Stands Beside Me, or any of the other folk art/folk artists featured in films at www.folkstreams.net (including Made in Mississippi; Sonny Ford, Delta Artist; Spirits in the Wood; and Unbroken Tradition).
2) Davis writes about the "native aesthetic" (13) in his article on Elijah Pierce. Take a shot at defining/explaining the native or community aesthetic of a particular item of material culture (a folk object) that isn't folk art.
3) Davis poses the question, "By which evaluative set of standards and perspectives do we recognize the genius of traditional folk artists?" (15), the standards of the artist's community or of collectors and critics. What do you think? Why is this an important idea to consider when thinking about folk something-or-others?
4) Visit the Columbus Museum of Art and write about one of the Pierce pieces in the collection there.   For more details, go to: http://columbusmuseum.org/about/eye_spy/elijahsenchantedwood_frm.html

This "journal" does not require that you write a response. However, I would like you to select several passages from the essay (before class meets, please). Concentrate on one or both of these types of information:
1) passages that suggest something about the author's fieldwork process (the actual steps she takes and choices she makes about the content while doing her research and filming)
2) passages that tell you about how she interacts with the kids with whom she is working and the effect those relationships have on her project (especially what she learns about them--and herself?--through the interactions).

Because the analysis in this book brings together several of the concepts we have been studying throughout the quarter, I'm giving you some topics to consider writing about. Mix and match ideas, below, to explore the subject in a way that makes sense to/and or interests you. Combine any of the ideas to write a response and, as always, be sure that it is developed and clear. (In other words, don't choose a lot of topics to mix and match because you think that means you don't have to do much analysis of the text/group.)

Hint: Taking good notes on the first few chapters that we discuss will help you start thinking about what you want to write about for your journal. It may even give you an opportunity to try out some of your ideas in discussion with your classmates before you write.

A few general questions to get you started thinking:
What makes these structures "folk objects" or "folk art"?  How do they reflect a "folk culture"?

...and some ways to categorize the information to help you interpret it:

the objects themselves: objects, representation, meaning            

the process of creating the objects: collective/collaborative, individual (personal?)

the creators: skilled (technical and/or occupational), artistic               

the items created: men, women, animals, cowboys, robots , etc.                                                                                                    
the workplace: hierarchy, rite of passage, professional, business

perceptions: insiders, outsiders (and subcategories within, for example, see "the workplace," above)

"Folk objects materialize tradition" (Bronner 199).  
"Beliefs can also be communicated through objects"   (Bronner 207).
"Although objects stand apart, their relations with their human creators and owners are still recognizable" (Bronner 204).
"[I]n narration, construction and embellishment appear as one and the same process.   With objects, embellishments can be added long after construction had been completed.   Layers of modification may be apparent" (Bronner 211).
"...commentary on contemporary industrial society" (Bronner 215).

Please choose one to respond to....or if you can think of any other way to compare the two essays and how they deal with folklore, go ahead!

1) What beliefs, attitudes, values, and/or practices do the Boy Scouts (or more specifically this troop and its camp experience) teach young boys?   Focus on one or more "lessons" Mechling addresses in this selection; incorporate your own response to his claims, if you wish.
2) Mechling demonstrates how popular culture can be integrated into (or created based on) folklore. Use an example of your own that shows how popular culture can become a part of a group's folklore. Be sure to describe and analyze to explain what the folklore communicates.
3) Mechling goes into great depth about the symbolic agenda of "Insane Day." What do you think about his interpretation? Write a logical, supported response to it.
4) Dundes's psychoanalytic interpretation of Bloody Mary is pretty hard-line. What do you think about it? Write a logical, supported response to it.
5) Both "DAY 3: Tuesday" and "Bloody Mary in the Mirror" deal with adolescents as a folk group. Describe and analyze a childhood game, narrative, or behavior with which you are familiar (either one you've observed or experienced yourself), and with your analysis, argue what you think this folklore communicates about the particular adolescents participating in it.
6) ...both deal with gender-based adolescent folklore. Write about adolescent (or children's) folklore that you think is gender-specific. How and why is it likely to be communicated only within groups of primarily one gender? What does that tell you about the particular gender-specific folklore you've chosen?
7) Write about your own summer camp folklore or the folklore from your experience as a Boy Scout, Girl Scout, or Camp Fire Girl (or camp experience based in another organized group's camp). Describe and analyze it, and with your analysis, argue what you think this folklore communicates within the group.
8) Mechling's piece discusses the idea of "inventing tradition." What does this concept of inventing tradition tell you about the study and/or definition of folklore? Use examples from this article/chapter (and other info, if that will help) to support your point.
9) Dundes makes an argument for a certain type of folklore scholarship, criticizing the work of other folklorists along the way. What does his critique--and his work with the "Bloody Mary" folklore--tell you about folklore studies?
10) Dundes and Mechling use different types of research and data collection. What do you think about the two different approaches? (It will probably help make your thoughts clearer if you briefly explain or label the approaches.) Is one more effective than the other for the type of interpretation the author-researcher is doing? Do you find the interpretation of either one's data more reliable because of the approach? If so, what is it about the research and/or interpretation that you think makes it more effective?   (Though he doesn't state it outright in this chapter, Mechling is researching at a camp he is familiar with, and with counselors he knew before this particular camp session. It's pretty obvious from the way it's written--even without knowing that information, I imagine--that he is collecting his data much differently than Dundes.)

Choose one.
1) Keyes' "'We're More than a Novelty, Boys'" provides us with a look at the early history of female rappers. How has the rap performance of female artists changed over the years? Be sure you write about what the change in one or more characteristics of expressive communication (such as language or clothing) of the rap performance communicates about women rappers, their values and beliefs.
2) Write about the gender roles enacted and/or challenged by contemporary female rappers.   (You may want to compare this to the presentation of gender identity of male rappers... or not.) Feel free to take into consideration our discussion of socially constructed gender roles from last week's discussion!
3) Write about the lyrics of female rappers of today.   Do they deal with feminist/women's issues? You may want to consider if they do this by using or working against the presentation styles of male rappers.
4) In Stewart's "Wishful Willful Wily Women," she notes the "powerful teaching function of folklore" (66) and explores the social messages ballad singers (and listeners) hear. Contemporary social and music critics often argue that rap music sends and reinforces negative messages--especially about women. How do female rappers (those in Keyes' article and more recently popular artists) challenge the social messages of their time?
5) Stewart writes about ballads as a type of folklore that allows performers to communicate coded messages, and Keyes discusses the way women rappers encode messages through appropriation. What other types of creative expression of a particular community/folk group employ coded messages? Give one or two examples and explain how the coding works.
6) Polly Stewart argues that ballads show "females in a male-dominated world are subject to oppression" (55), and Keyes' rappers find themselves in a similar position in the (1980s, at least) music business. Compare these two situations to make a point about the two time periods and/or social contexts.