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BRER RABBIT TALES Southern, African-American Folklore

BRER RABBIT TALES Southern, African-American Folklore. FOLKLORE Stories passed down by word of mouth for many generations Intended to teach morals and values; explain beliefs of a culture; and to entertain

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BRER RABBIT TALES Southern, African-American Folklore

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  1. BRER RABBITTALESSouthern, African-American Folklore

  2. FOLKLORE • Stories passed down by word of mouth for many generations • Intended to teach morals and values; explain beliefs of a culture; and to entertain • A fable is a type of folklore that uses human-like animal characters in a short story to teach a lesson about human behavior. • A trickster tale involves a “little guy” who gets the better of a bigger opponent using wit and wisdom.

  3. Brer Rabbit: Trickster Tales • The Brer Rabbit stories are considered trickster tales. • The characters are human-like animals, like in fables, but the stories do not generally teach good moral lessons. • Brer Rabbit does not possess the highest of virtues. He is lazy, greedy, silly, and selfish. (The reader admires his childlike charm and quick wit.)

  4. Origin of Brer Rabbit: Can you guess?

  5. Brer Rabbit Tales: Out of Slavery • Brer Rabbit stories were brought to the American South by black slaves who came against their will. • Many of the stories have roots in Africa; others originated on the plantations. • Brer Rabbit, small and helpless, always defeats his adversaries—larger animals. Brer Rabbit was the favorite character of Plantation Era storytellers in the South.

  6. Joel Chandler Harris • In the late 1800s, Harris collected hundreds of tales from slaves and published them. • His volumes are recognized as the largest single collection of African-American folktales ever published.

  7. Harris invented a narrator for the tales: Uncle Remus, an elderly black plantation slave who told the stories of Brer Rabbit to a young white boy. • Harris recorded the stories the way he heard them, rich in the dialect of African-American slaves.

  8. Dialect • Dialect is a way of speaking that is characteristic of a certain geographical area or group of people. • “Brer” is short for “brother,” an affectionate term used to explain family feelings.

  9. Today we will: • View storyteller Jackie Torrence retelling a Brer Rabbit story; • Eat Brer Rabbit Biscuits and molasses cookies; and • Drink Fox Blood!

  10. Brer Rabbit Biscuits • 1. First we opens up a big, ole, cat-head biscuit. • 2. Den we slaps some sweet butter on da plate. • 3. We pours some mo-lasses over da butta. • 4. Den we mixes, and we mixes. • 5. And we sops, and we eats, and we eats, and we sops.

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