The strange career of Uncle Remus.
Item
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Title
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The strange career of Uncle Remus.
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Identifier
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AAI3115281
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identifier
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3115281
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Creator
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Pamplin, M. Claire.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Marc Dolan
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Date
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2004
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, American
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Abstract
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Remus is a key point in Harris scholarship. More specifically, questions center on the level of Harris's awareness in creating Remus, who can be read both as a trickster subverting the old plantation system and white superiority along with it, and as an old man who appears to condone and even love the old slave system. Furthermore, the tales Remus tells are also subversive. Harris clearly presents Remus as a loyal, slave-like family servant, but also as a shaman-like guide to the little white boy, leading him on a journey into a strange world of forbidden knowledge.;Remus tells trickster tales, and in doing so, becomes a trickster himself, i.e., to some listeners or readers, his tales are merely humorous animal stories. To others, they contain important, possibly dangerous information.;To understand Harris and Remus the reader must recognize that they embody opposing possibilities simultaneously. To understand a good deal of Southern literature we must recognize simultaneous opposing meanings. To grasp Southern thought and behavior we must comprehend this. Harris himself did live on a plantation for a time during his youth, but as an employee, not as a child of privilege, and he never knew firsthand the luxury of plantation wealth. Likewise, to choose only the servile Remus would be to ignore the Remus who is presented as the man with the greatest character and strongest moral grounding in the story, and indeed, the one who is at the center of the plantation in moral and spiritual authority.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
