{"product_id":"the-annotated-african-american-folktales-9780871407535","title":"The Annotated African American Folktales","description":"\u003cp\u003eDrawing from the great folklorists of the past while expanding African American lore with dozens of tales rarely seen before, \u003cem\u003eThe Annotated African American Folktales\u003c\/em\u003e revolutionizes the canon like no other volume. Following in the tradition of such classics as Arthur Huff Fauset's \"Negro Folk Tales from the South\" (1927), Zora Neale Hurston's \u003cem\u003eMules and Men\u003c\/em\u003e (1935), and Virginia Hamilton's \u003cem\u003eThe People Could Fly\u003c\/em\u003e (1985), acclaimed scholars Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Maria Tatar assemble a groundbreaking collection of folktales, myths, and legends that revitalizes a vibrant African American past to produce the most comprehensive and ambitious collection of African American folktales ever published in American literary history. Arguing for the value of these deceptively simple stories as part of a sophisticated, complex, and heterogeneous cultural heritage, Gates and Tatar show how these remarkable stories deserve a place alongside the classic works of African American literature, and American literature more broadly.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOpening with two introductory essays and twenty seminal African tales as historical background, Gates and Tatar present nearly 150 African American stories, among them familiar Brer Rabbit classics, but also stories like \"The Talking Skull\" and \"Witches Who Ride,\" as well as out-of-print tales from the 1890s' \u003cem\u003eSouthern Workman\u003c\/em\u003e. Beginning with the figure of Anansi, the African trickster, master of improvisation--a spider who plots and weaves in scandalous ways--\u003cem\u003eThe Annotated African American Folktales\u003c\/em\u003e then goes on to draw Caribbean and Creole tales into the orbit of the folkloric canon. It retrieves stories not seen since the Harlem Renaissance and brings back archival tales of \"Negro folklore\" that Booker T. Washington proclaimed had emanated from a \"grapevine\" that existed even \u003cem\u003ebefore the American Revolution\u003c\/em\u003e, stories brought over by slaves who had survived the Middle Passage. Furthermore, Gates and Tatar's volume not only defines a new canon but reveals how these folktales were hijacked and misappropriated in previous incarnations, egregiously by Joel Chandler Harris, a Southern newspaperman, as well as by Walt Disney, who cannibalized and capitalized on Harris's volumes by creating cartoon characters drawn from this African American lore.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePresenting these tales with illuminating annotations and hundreds of revelatory illustrations, \u003cem\u003eThe Annotated African American Folktales\u003c\/em\u003e reminds us that stories not only move, entertain, and instruct but, more fundamentally, inspire and keep hope alive.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cem\u003eThe Annotated African American Folktales\u003c\/em\u003e includes: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003eIntroductory essays, nearly 150 African American stories, and 20 seminal African tales as historical background\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eThe familiar Brer Rabbit classics, as well as news-making vernacular tales from the 1890s' \u003cem\u003eSouthern Workman\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eAn entire section of Caribbean and Latin American folktales that finally become incorporated into the canon\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eApproximately 200 full-color, museum-quality images\u003c\/li\u003e \u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGates, Henry Louis:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eHenry Louis Gates, Jr.\u003c\/strong\u003e (Ph.D.Cambridge), is Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and American Research, Harvard University. He is the author of \u003cem\u003eLife Upon These Shores: Looking at African American History, 1513-2008\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eBlack in Latin America\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eTradition and the Black Atlantic: Critical Theory in the African Diaspora\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eFaces of America\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eFigures in Black: Words, Signs, and the Racial Self\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eThe Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Criticism\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eLoose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eColored People: A Memoir\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eThe Future of Race with Cornel West\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eWonders of the African World\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eThirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man\u003c\/em\u003e; and \u003cem\u003eThe Trials of Phillis Wheatley\u003c\/em\u003e. His is also the writer, producer, and narrator of PBS documentaries \u003cem\u003eFinding Your Roots\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eBlack in Latin America\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eFaces of America\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eAfrican American Lives 1 and 2\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eLooking for Lincoln\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eAmerica Beyond the Color Line\u003c\/em\u003e; and \u003cem\u003eWonders of the African World\u003c\/em\u003e. He is the editor of \u003cem\u003eAfrican American National Biography\u003c\/em\u003e with Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, and \u003cem\u003eThe Dictionary of African Biography\u003c\/em\u003e with Anthony Appiah; \u003cem\u003eEncyclopedia Africana\u003c\/em\u003e with Anthony Appiah; and \u003cem\u003eThe Bondwoman's Narrative\u003c\/em\u003e by Hannah Crafts, as well as editor-in-chief of TheRoot.com.\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTatar, Maria:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eMaria Tatar\u003c\/strong\u003e chairs the Program in Folklore and Mythology at Harvard University. She is the author of \u003cem\u003eEnchanted Hunters: The Power of Stories in Childhood\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eOff with Their Heads! Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood\u003c\/em\u003e and many other books on folklore and fairy stories. She is also the editor and translator of \u003cem\u003eThe Annotated Hans Christian Anderse\u003c\/em\u003en, \u003cem\u003eThe Annotated Brothers Grimm\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, The Annotated Peter Pan, The Classic Fairy Tales: A Norton Critical Edition\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Grimm Reader\u003c\/em\u003e. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.","brand":"Liveright Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50899480117522,"sku":"9780871407535","price":35.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_bab73e8f-6f44-457c-83e6-c69a3cf11f8a.jpg?v=1738357291","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-annotated-african-american-folktales-9780871407535","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}