This study presents in-depth analyses of folktales from the oral tradition of French and Creole Louisiana. The region’s folklore is a unique tradition formed from the confluence of diverse elements following a number of significant population movements to Louisiana. The French and Spanish colonization, the slave trade, the Acadian deportation, and the Saint-Domingue Revolution are discussed in some detail. Through comparative analyses of a corpus of Louisiana folktales and their analogues from Acadia, France, and West Africa, my research demonstrates how motifs, characters, and moral values have been adapted over time to the sociocultural context of Louisiana. Paul Zumthor’s theory of false reiterability is employed to explain these mutations in oral narrative. I suggest that several instances of cultural trauma – slavery, the Grand dérangement, and linguistic inferiority resulting from English-only education - resulted in a cultural renegotiation among Louisiana’s French and Creole communities that is reflected in the region’s oral tradition. The three principal chapters each examine an important figure of Louisiana’s folklore: the animal trickster, the fool (Jean-le-Sot), and the Master Thief. A general tendency of increased prestige associated with the trickster figure can be observed in Louisiana’s folklore. Moreover, Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the carnivalesque is used to explain the subversion of established power structure accomplished by the trickster. By framing Louisiana as a space of cultural exchange and creolization, this study places the region in a larger context of the francophone world, including Africa, the Caribbean, and the French Atlantic. / 1 / Nathan J. Rabalais

Typically, the black woman character has been underrepresented and often ignored in the area of American folklore. If discussed at all, she is assumed to fill only subordinate, supporting roles. The male domination of field work and the lack of substantive research about the folkloric black woman have perpetuated these assumptions In this dissertation, I intend to alter this situation by identifying and discussing folktales that contain black women as principal characters. Additionally, I shall analyze these tales and characters with the aid of techniques from the fields of anthropology, English, history, and sociology. Such perspectives will provide an interdisciplinary treatment of the folktales. Explanations of world view or cultural group identity, literary themes and style, historical validity, and socialization and role-specific definitions will help to support my identification of the black woman as a major folkloric character Sixty-one folktales form the foundation for this investigation. In order to document the contextual information suggested by the content of the tales, I use primary and secondary sources from the disciplines cited earlier. This procedure follows the method of 'identification and interpretation,' a recent development in folklore analysis. Upon identifying the major roles portrayed by black women, I establish that two general categories, familial and religious tales, cover most of the positions assumed by women characters in folktales. Within each category, I identify behavioral or role types and discuss the contexts in which those activities or personalities could be documented. Both of the divisions of the tales contain role models or behavior patterns My findings indicate that the image of the precontemporary black woman is composed of many more sociocultural components than previously assumed. She is, indeed, a major character in folklore, as determined by my social scientific and literary analyses. Both traditional and non-traditional portrayals establish a folk figure that is just as colorful and well-developed as the male character who has been popularized since the period of American slavery. The results of my study can have significant bearing on placing some perspective on current issues concerning the roles of the American black woman / acase@tulane.edu

The study of folklore within Australia to date has been consistently hampered by the lack of any systematic and comprehensive subject bibliography available to researchers interested in the area. The present work provides a conceptual framework for folklore generally, and Australian folklore, specifically. The framework utilises contemporary scholarship and government policy formulations in the subject area. Based upon that framework, a comprehensive bibliographic listing of all folklore material published within Australia between the years 1790 and 1990 is provided comprising 1661 works. An account of the bibliographic problems pertinent to the subject area is provided together with an explanation of the causes of those problems. An historical summary and interpretation of the bibliography is presented in conjunction with an appraisal of the state of folklore research in Australia at the present time.

The nurse is central to healthcare and has always been the most prominent figure in times of vulnerability throughout the life cycle. This dissertation attempts to recover the complexity and wholeness of the nurse by tracing her origins as far back as Neolithic times. Ancient mythology, folklore, literature, art, and popular culture are explored to reveal the multifaceted characteristics of the nurse. Specific images are expanded to deepen understanding of the nurse archetype. / The nurse image holds longing, ambivalence, fear, desire, and vulnerability. Mythology, metaphor, and symbol are drawn upon to recover the soul of the nurse, revealing new insights, forgotten memories, and devalued capacities. Idealizing or demonizing the nurse is an attempt to break free of her power. The nurse is often portrayed as dangerous and mysterious because she is so close to the archetypal energies of death and eros. The nurse's body cares for the bodies of others. Nurses are drawn to work that is messy, peculiar, and unpredictable, thus the work of the nurse is soul work. The soul longs for complexity. The nurse craves intensity, merging, and collaboration. Like Baubo, she affirms life while maintaining an understanding of the brutal frankness and wonder of the life cycle. Her true body consciousness is Dionysian. / Over time the image of the nurse has been split into one-dimensional disguises ranging from the angelic heroine to the sex object. Without moralizing or dividing the good from the bad, the author---a nurse---investigates the dynamic energy of the nurse archetype and discusses what has been lost through splits, repressions, and distortions. This study reveals why the nurse captivates culture and maintains the status as the most trusted professional in society, questioning what it would take to re-member her comprehensive wholeness.

Even though jailhouses dominate the skyline of many small Texas towns, not much work has been done on what those buildings mean in the historic context in which they were built. These jailhouses held specific meanings for small Texas communities and their townspeople that also helped to shape present day society. Texas jailhouse architecture between 1880 and 1910 reflected the desire to be modern, the desire for changes in prison reform, and the position of women and family in a newly civilized society.

Recuperar para la memoria histórica el aporte artístico-cultural, social, político e ideológico que realizaron los artistas de la música popular de protesta en Bolivia, tanto los que tuvieron militancia política como los que sólo militaron en la esperanza de una nueva sociedad; tanto los que se consagraron como los que prefirieron no hacerlo

Mobilität ist eine der Schlüsselerfahrungen unserer Zeit. Sie scheint im Gefolge technisch-ökonomischer und politisch-sozialer Veränderungen allumfassend geworden zu sein. Dabei verändern die Erfahrungen, die Menschen in und mit Mobilität machen, auch die Funktion und den Stellenwert ihrer Kulturen. Durch die anhaltende Mobilität werden Kulturen aus ihren traditionellen nationalen Verankerungen gelöst (werden also selbst mobil), die mobiler gewordenen Menschen sind aber mehr als zuvor darauf angewiesen, zur Bewältigung ihrer Erfahrungen auf ihre kulturellen Ressourcen zurückzugreifen (sie zu mobilisieren). Diese Ambivalenz von Kulturen in/der Mobilität ist für die Beiträge des vorliegenden Bandes erkenntnisleitend. Im Kontext der zahlreichen Publikationen zu den Themen Globalisierung, Migration und Kultur stellt das Potsdamer Forschungsprojekt insofern eine Besonderheit dar, als es linguistische und literaturwissenschaftliche, historische und systematische, empirische und theoretische Zugriffsweisen auf innovative Weise verbindet. Das besondere des hier leitenden Ansatzes besteht darin, dass hier nicht einfach Kulturen als geschlossene Systeme vergleichend gegenüberstellt werden, sondern Formen und Szenarien der interkulturellen Begegnung im Mittelpunkt der Betrachtung stehen werden. Diese Szenarien sind von ihrem Wesen bzw. ihrer Verfasstheit solcherart, dass sie mit Bezug auf eine nationale Kultur nicht mehr angemessen zu beschreiben wären. Sie stellen vielmehr Momente des Aushandelns nicht konvertierbarer kultureller Andersartigkeit dar, die zur Reflexion und Vermittlung mit der Eigenkultur zwingen.

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