Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings

by Joel Chandler Harris, William B. Williford (Introduction)

Overview

In 1880, Joel Chandler Harris, a moderate white Southern journalist, published a collection of black folktales, proverbs, songs, and character sketches based on stories he had heard as a child. In his introduction, Robert Hemenway discusses the book's enduring popularity, pointing out that the character of Uncle Remus, the docile and grandfatherly ex-slave storyteller, is a utopian figure-a literary creation by Harris that reassured white readers during the tense and tentative Reconstruction. By contrast, the feisty Brer Rabbit was a mainstay of black folklore long before Harris heard of his exploits. Brer Rabbit's cunning and revolutionary antics symbolically inverted the slave-master relationship and satisfied the deep human needs of a captive people.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780877972303
Publisher:	Cherokee Publishing Company
Publication date:	11/28/1984
Series:	American Library Series
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.06(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.85(d)

About the Author

Joel Chandler Harris (1845-1908) authored 185 Uncle Remus tales, as well as other short fiction, novels, and children's stories.

Table of Contents

	Introduction: Author, Teller, and Hero	7
	Suggestions for Further Reading	33
	A Note on the Text	35
	Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings	37