A Magical Country : Stories from Appalachia
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University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 12-2014 A magical country : stories from Appalachia. James Eric Leary 1977- University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Part of the Appalachian Studies Commons, Folklore Commons, and the Modern Literature Commons Recommended Citation Leary, James Eric 1977-, "A magical country : stories from Appalachia." (2014). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1754. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/1754 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. 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A MAGICAL COUNTRY: STORIES FROM APPALACHIA By James Eric Leary B.A. Eastern Kentucky University, 2001 M.A. University of Louisville, 2005 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Louisville in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Humanities University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky December 2014 Copyright 2014 by James Leary All rights reserved A MAGICAL COUNTRY: STORIES FROM APPALACHIA By James Leary B.A., Eastern Kentucky University, 2001 M.A., University of Louisville, 2005 A Dissertation Approved on November 24, 2014 by the following Dissertation Committee: _________________________________ Dissertation Director Dr. Annette Allen _________________________________ Paul Griner _________________________________ Dr. Selene Phillips _________________________________ Dr. Michael Williams ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS From the University of Louisville, I would like to thank Professors Paul Griner, Michael Williams, Selene Phillips, and Alan Leidner for graciously agreeing to serve on my dissertation committee and guiding me through my scholarly and creative work. I am also indebted to the love, friendship, and guidance of Jessica Maupin, Dan Maupin, Dr. Amy Tudor, Dr. Elijah Pritchett, Revely Culver, Dr. Julie Wade, Catherine Leary, Stacy Taylor, Bryan Scichilone, Betty Wilson, Julian Wilson, and Kathryn Leary. All of them have had a hand in this work and its completion. Lastly, the work would not have been possible or fruitful without the advocacy and guidance of Professor Annette Allen, and I will always consider her a mentor and friend. iii ABSTRACT A MAGICAL COUNTRY: STORIES FROM APPALACHIA James Leary November 24, 2014 Fairy tales and other forms of fantastic literature have fascinated children and adults for generations. The scholarship on these types of works indicate that many find their folkloric origins in oral storytelling, and those roots may be quite ancient. However, some of the earliest examples of recorded literature capture stories of magic and fantasy. The interplay between the oral and literary form remains a significant area of study and development for folk literature, and new artistic productions, termed variants in the scholarship, continue to appear frequently in contemporary American culture. The criticism and creative work presented here add to the outpouring of fairy tale variants and southern literature that have been so prevalent in the United States in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The dissertation is divided into two main sections. Section I provides scholarly discussion on the history of fantastic literature, the history of scholarship on fairy tales, the value of production of fairy tale and related films in contemporary society, and in- depths critical discussions of the sources and variants used to develop the body of fiction that follows. Section II includes the collection of short fiction titled A Magical Country: Stories from Appalachia. This collection follows several traditions of the literary collection of iv oral stories, including a frame tale and rotating narrators. Five different storytellers share oral stories with each other and an extended audience in a rural Appalachian general store. The store serves as a focal point for the community where information, rumors, and successes are disseminated. Each of the five stories in the collection blends elements from fairy tales and Appalachian oral stories currently in circulation. All together, the collection of stories illustrate the concerns and perspectives of rural, southern Appalachia and the encroachment of contemporary life and problems from what is perceived as the outside world which is urban life and city dwellers. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………….……...iii ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………...iv INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................1 SECTION I: Rural Conditions, Fairy Tales, and the Fantastic.........................................4 CHAPTER I: Definitions of the Fairy Tales and the Fantastic..........................................5 CHAPTER II: What Good Is a Magical Castle?: The Value of Fairy Tales and the Fantastic …………………………………....……………………………..…16 CHAPTER III: Origin and Genesis of the Creative Work................................................26 CHAPTER IV: Structure: Frames and Short Fiction.........................................................34 CHAPTER V: Critical and Artistic Discussion of the Creative Work..............................40 Roses and the Magic of Transformation in: The Consequences of Beastly Behavior"...................................................................................................41 "Shift the Clever Foal": In Kentucky, a Horse Will Go Farther Than a Cat"............................................................................................................48 "The Boy Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was": From Fish to Opossums...................................................................................................53 "Hank and Ginger Go Snipe Hunting": "Hansel and Gretel" in New Country......................................................................................................58 From "Little Red Cap" to "Big Red Cap": Urban Wilderness...............................67 SECTION II: A Magical Country: Stories from Appalachia...........................................77 Part One.............................................................................................................................78 vi Homer Johnson's Joke Tale: The Consequences of Beastly Behavior..................92 Part Two...........................................................................................................................110 Ray Workman's Animal Tale: Shifty the Clever Foal.........................................112 Part Three……..………….........................................................................................…..122 Julian Bowles' Magical Tale of Victory: Playing the Opossum Harmonica.......127 Part Four ..........................................................................................................................142 Shirley Bishop's Tale of Magic Pies and Witches: Hank and Ginger Go Snipe Hunting....................................................................................................145 Part Five...........................................................................................................................157 Russel Bishop's Warning Tale: Big Red Cap......................................................161 Part Six.............................................................................................................................172 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………..…..…178 APPENDICES Appendix A: Photographs of Levy and Surrounding Areas................................187 Appendix B: Bibliography of Films and Television Series with Magical Content.....................................................................................................199 CURRICULUM VITAE………………………………………………………………..203 vii INTRODUCTION My creative project, submitted in completion of my doctoral work at the University of Louisville, is a collection of short fiction entitled A Magical Country: Stories from Appalachia. The collection will offer contemporary variants of traditional fairy tales in a localized, rural, and protected world that faces influence from outside forces. To connect the traditions of fantastic literature to contemporary fiction, readers must clearly see the links between contemporary production of fantastic stories and previous variants of fairy tales and magical works. Contemporary variants offer new cultural contexts for audiences, as it offers them a view into the life and conditions of current American audiences. That fairy tales offer a useful vehicle for culture and storytelling is not unusual in some respects; scholars have claimed throughout the twentieth century that children benefit from the magical world of fairy tales in fundamental ways.1 However, many of the new works are clearly not intended for child audiences; adults are benefitting now, and the reasons for this are as old as the stories 1 Bruno Bettelheim refers to this benefit in The Uses of Enchantment. Specifically, he writes that a story, to enrich a child’s life, must stimulate