San Antonio College Library

The author, a storyteller, musician, folklorist, and teacher, went to English-as-second-language courses, first in Chicago then elsewhere, both to share with young immigrants some of the English-language oral traditions, and to elicit from them folktales from their own cultures and families. He sets out the process he used so that others can follow him, and shares stories from Latin America, eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

Melville's Folk Roots brings to the forefront the depth of Melville's immersion with and borrowing from oral traditions, both musical and narrative; tall-tale humor; nautical folklore; superstition; and legend. Though intended as a survey of Melville's use of folklore, this book also is important as a general introduction to his work. Unencumbered by critical jargon and narrated in an engaging manner, this book will appeal to general readers as well...

"For more than four hundred years, members of the author's family have been telling stories about their American lives. They have told of impassioned elopements and heart-breaking kidnaps, of hairbreadth escapes and shocking murders, of bigamists, changelings, patriots, Indians, fires, floods, and how the great-grandmother of Chief Justice John Marshall married the pirate Blackbeard by mistake. In this beautifully written work, Andie Tucher considers...

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s original, groundbreaking study explores the relationship between the African and African-American vernacular traditions and black literature, elaborating a new critical approach located within this tradition that allows the black voice to speak for itself. Examining the ancient poetry and myths found in African, Latin American, and Caribbean culture, and particularly the Yoruba trickster figure of Esu-Elegbara and the Signifying...