Africa
The second largest continent, extending south from the Mediterranean Sea and bounded by the Atlantic and Indian oceans and the Red Sea.Physical.The Equator passes through the middle of Africa, so ...
African-American Oral Tradition
I thought about the tales I had heard as a child. How even The Bible was made over to suit our vivid imagination—Zora Neale HurstonThe African-American oral tradition is ...
Africanisms
Africanisms refer to African cultural and linguistic practices that survived the passage across the Atlantic Ocean, including language, music, dance, medicine, folk culture, food preparation, and ...
Appalachia.
Geographically, Appalachia includes the mountains and valleys of states eastward from the Ohio River to the piedmont and northward from Georgia to Maine. Appalachia most often refers to the more ...
archetype
An original which has been imitated; (in Jungian theory) a primitive mental image inherited from the earliest human ancestors, and supposed to be present in the collective unconscious.
At Swim-Two-Birds
Flann O'Brien's first novel, published in 1939. Graham Greene, then a publisher's reader, recommended its acceptance, noting O'Brien's attempt ‘to present, simultaneously, as it were, all the ...
banshee
In Irish legend, a female spirit whose wailing warns of a death in the house. Recorded from the late 17th century, the term comes from Irish bean sidhe, from Old Irish ben side ‘woman of the fairies’.
beast fable
The commonest type of fable, in which animals and birds speak and behave like human beings in a short tale usually illustrating some moral point. The fables attributed to Aesop (6th century bce) and ...
Black English Vernacular
In modern times, Black English vernacular is alternately referred to as African American vernacular English, Black English, inner-city English, Ebonics, or African American English, although the last ...
Black Family
The television adaptation of Alex Haley's Roots (1976), which traced the history of a black family beginning with its African progenitor, Kunta Kinte, aired to wide public acclaim in the ...
bridal quest epic
Universal narrative type relating a young nobleman’s attempts to win a bride. They are especially popular in 12th- and 13th-century Germany (Spielmannsepik) and 13th- and 14th-century Scandinavia ...
Brunhild
In the Nibelungenlied, the wife of Gunther, who instigated the murder of Siegfried. In the Norse versions she is Brynhild, a Valkyrie whom Sigurd (the counterpart of Siegfried) wins by penetrating ...
Cards of the Gambler
(1953), a novel by Benedict Kiely in which a folklore-type narrative is juxtaposed with a realistic one to tell the same story.
Celtic Twilight
A collection of stories by Yeats, published 1893, illustrating the mysticism of the Irish and their belief in fairies, ghosts, and spirits. It has since become a generic phrase (slightly ironical) ...
childhood
A variable social construction, the concept of childhood barely existed in early America. In fact, this special period of growth and development experienced before accepting adult responsibilities ...
Colm De Bhailís
(1796–1906),a major poet in the folklore of Connemara; born in Leitir Mealláin, he worked as a stonemason. His songs were published by the Gaelic League as Amhráin Chuilm de Bhailís (1904).[...]
Comedians
In the late nineteenth century, black comedy was about to burst out of the shadows of minstrelsy that it had been forced into by whites. Born in Africa via folktales ...
cowboy
Originally, a lawless marauder. The name was first applied to some pro-British gangs in the USA during the American War of Independence, who roamed the neutral ground of Westchester county in New ...
Cromwell
(1983), a long poem sequence by Brendan Kennelly which sets the figure of Oliver Cromwell, as he appears in folklore, history, and Irish racial hatred, against the character of Buffún, a version of ...
Davy Crockett
(1786–1836),born in Tennessee, spent a shiftless youth until his political career began (c.1816) with his appointment as justice of the peace. He boasted that none of his decisions was ever reversed ...
