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Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48100 73-26,831 HARRIS, Trudier, 1948- THE TIE THAT BINDS: THE FUNCTION OF FOLKLORE IN THE FICTION OF CHARLES WADDELL CHESNUTT, JEAN TOOMER AND RALPH ELLISON. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1973 Folklore [ ] University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. THE TIE THAT BINDS* THE FUNCTION OF FOLKLORE IN THE FICTION OF CHARLES WADDELL CHESNUTT, JEAN TOCMER AND RALPH ELLISON DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Trudier Karris, A.B,, H, A* * * * * « The Ohio State University 1973 Reading Committee* Approved by Professor Hortense E, Thornton Professor Daniel R. Barnes Professor Martha Frosch Adviser Department of English ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my thanks to my adviser* Professor Patrick B* Mullen* who, by his own confession* never became as tired of reading this manuscript as I did of writing it* His unfailing guidance and suggestions in this endeavor proved to be of inesti­ mable value* Also* his timely appearance at Ohio State made this dissertation possible* To my second and third readers, Professors Hortense E. Thornton and Daniel R* Barnes, whose very busy schedules I Interrupted to request that they read th is manuscript, many thanks and much appreciation* Trudier Harris May, 1973 i i VITA February 2?, 19^8 • .....................• * , « Bom—Mantua, Green County, Alabama May i 19^6 Diploma, Druid High School, T uscaloosa, Alabama September, 19&6 to ,,••••••« Enrolled Stillman College, May, 1988 T uscaloosa, Alabama Summer, 19 68 Enrolled Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana on Educational Opportunity Fellow ship September, 1968 to Stillman College, June, 1969 T uscaloosa, Alabama. A.B. June i, 1989f English and Social Studies Summer, 19&9 t o , .................... , » * Enrolled Graduate School, May, 1973 Ohio State University on University Fellowship! Department of English, M.A, September 1 , 1972, FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field 1 Afro-American Folklore. Professor Patrick B, Mullen. Modem British and American Literature. Professor Morris Beja. American L iterature through the 19th c e n tu ry . Professor Thomas Hoodson. Medieval Literature, Professor Francis L. Utley. i l l TABLE OP CONTENTS Riga ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............. ................. 11 VITA .......................................... ............... I l l INTRODUCTION . .................................................................. 1 Chapter I . ANTECEDENTS IN SLAVERY...................................... 8 I I . ROOTS IN THE RURAL SOUTH............................. 91 I I I . FLOWERING ON THE CITY PAVEMENTS........................... 166 IV. CONCLUSION............................... Zk7 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....»• ................. 262 Introduction The folk Influence on American literary tradition has long been recognized and studies have been done illustrating this influence. In both religious and secular writings, the folk mind made its Impact felt. Early histories recording the pilgrim transplant to America as veil as beginnings in the nev land have their share of providence tales and popular superstitions, a major part of which concerned witch­ craft. Washington Irving found German folktales worthy of re-creation in "The Legend o f Sleepy Hollow** and "Rip Van W inkle." Continuing this tradition through the 19th century and into the present day. writers such as Hawthorne, Twain, Melville and Faulkner as well as others have become renowned for their conscious assimilation of folk materials into their literature,* On a popular level, writers in the Southwestern humor tradition did essentially the same thing* In an effort to satirize Jacksonian democrats, they imitated these so-called backwoods clowns and yokels in their popular creations. Black American literature, developing a t a much slower rate than its white counterpart, was similarly influenced by its folk tradition, and perhaps more so because the black man's early expressions in America were primarily oral. However, less scholarship has been devoted to a consideration of folk influence on black writers, a situation which is also partially due to the lesser quantity of Afro- American literary creations as well as a general lack of interest among 1 academic circles. This study, therefore, was conceived with just such an exploration in mind. Its subject is to discuss the black folk cultural influence (as well as others) on three black American writers'. The study concentrates on the fictive writings of Charles Waddell Chesnutt, Nathan Eugene (Jean) Toomer and Ralph Ellison in an explo­ ration of their uses of folklore and the various structural and the­ matic functions folk culture serves in their works. More specifically, the study concentrates on The Conjure Woman. Cane, and Invisible Man. but references are made to other works, The major contention Is that Chesnutt, Toomer, and Ellison were bound to the roots of their culture and even when they achieved the highest praise for literary accomplish­ ments (judging by the standards for achievement previously set by the dominant culture), they did not spar far from their basic black Inherited traditions. The rudimentary black cultural ideas and attitudes remained an inseparable part of their arti the folk, with a ll of their polished and unpolished Implications, coexisted with the "sophisticated,* In their writings, these authors allowed the folk to appear in their true garbt the folk retained their superstitious beliefs, home remedies, mannerisms, and everything else whioh was a part of their lives and culture. Also, in the fiction of these three writers, characters in the folk tradition retained racial attitudes which grew out of being a minority culture shaped in part by the prejudices, stereotypes, and other repressive concepts imposed upon it by the majority culture. In other words, these authors could not stray far from the ties that bound them to their ancestors and contemporary blacks. Nor did they wish to 3 do so, for the patterns which shaped their race and culture provided almost unlimited subject matters for artistic endeavors* These particular three black writers were chosen because they represent three distinct periods of development in the black American's literature and history* Chesnutt's black society was concerned with assimilation* Blacks fe lt whites would accept them if they worked hard enough to improve themselves and/or if they were humble enough* During Toomer's age, blacks looked inward in search for individuality and identity* The Harlem Renaissance was a period of self-discovery and there was a sharp growth of interest in things black* Unfortunate­ ly, the black man found himself called upon to uphold a new stereotype} he became a symbol of the freedom from restraint for which the white intellectual longed so ardently* For Ellison and his fellow blacks, disillusionment had set in* The cement frontier had collapsed with resounding consequences* Re-affirming the black did not erase the problems of dealing with the white* An age of turmoil and open con­ flic t was emerging which has continued into the present day* There was no desire to return to Toomer's age of partially ignoring racial problems or to Chesnutt's age of essentially begging one's way into the dominant culture. Bom in 1858, Chesnutt was close enough to the slavery era to observe the black culture almost in its original state* Education was just being offered to blacks on a wide scale and as a teacher in North