Tricksters: When Brer Rabbit Meets Coyote

As I shift from African American to Native American tricksters in the secondary literature review this week, this book maps that intersection beautifully: When Brer Rabbit Meets Coyote: African-Native American Literature, edited by Jonathan Brennan.

Brennan, who is a professor of English at Mission College in Santa Clara, California, explains the book's purpose and its title in the preface: "At the crossroads, the meeting place of runaway African slaves and displaced Indians, of oral and written traditions, of the human and the divine, of meaning and indeterminacy, of the past and the future, we find a liminal space of mixed-race Black Indian identity and culture where the longest unwritten chapter in American history is written (and spoken). African-Native American literature becomes a possibility when the trickster interprets between worlds, when understanding meets truth, when Brer Rabbit meets Coyote."

In the introduction, Brennan provides a detailed survey (almost 100 pages long!) of the back-and-forth between African and Native folk traditions: "Introduction: Recognition of the African-Native American Literary Tradition." There then follow two essays on African-Native American folklore:  "On the Interaction of Traditions: Southeastern Rabbit Tales as African-Native American Folklore" by David Elton Gay and "Brer Rabbit and His Cherokee Cousin: Moving Beyond the Appropriation Paradigm" by Sandra K. Baringer. The other essay sections cover captivity and slave narratives, Mardi Gras performances, and contemporary culture.

So, I'll be back tomorrow with more about Native American trickster traditions! Meanwhile, enjoy Brennan's book; it is a fantastic resource:

When Brer Rabbit Meets Coyote:
African-Native American Literature

by Jonathan Brennan