Reassessing Brer Rabbit: friendship, altruism, and community in the folklore of enslaved African-Americans.
This article examines the Brer Rabbit trickster tales of enslaved African Americans. It challenges earlier interpretations of scholars who view the world of Brer Rabbit as amoral and anarchic. Lawrence Levine, for example, claimed that friendship was portrayed as a ‘fragile reed’ in the Brer Rabbit...
| Published in: | Slavery & Abolition Vol. 39; no. 1; pp. 123 - 147 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Mar2018
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=128104400&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 128104400 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 0144039X RJP jtl: Slavery & Abolition issn: 0144039X maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Mar2018 vid: 39 iid: 1 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 128104400 10.1080/0144039X.2017.1323705 ppf: 123 ppct: 24 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 1.6MB tig: atl: Reassessing Brer Rabbit: friendship, altruism, and community in the folklore of enslaved African-Americans. aug: au: Lussana, Sergio su: Brer Rabbit (Legendary character) African American folklore African American tales Friendship in literature Altruism in literature sug: subj: Brer Rabbit (Legendary character) African American folklore African American tales Friendship in literature Altruism in literature ab: This article examines the Brer Rabbit trickster tales of enslaved African Americans. It challenges earlier interpretations of scholars who view the world of Brer Rabbit as amoral and anarchic. Lawrence Levine, for example, claimed that friendship was portrayed as a ‘fragile reed’ in the Brer Rabbit tales. Instead, this article argues that Brer Rabbit did not live in an amoral world; rather, he lived in a world of ethical boundaries. Indeed, friendship, altruism, and commitment to vulnerable members of the community were prized – not derided. For enslaved people in the United States, these values were crucial for survival; yet historians have failed to pay sufficient attention to these themes in the tales. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Slavery & Abolition is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Slavery & Abolition holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd dt: @attributes: year: 2018 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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