Transcending Cultural Boundary: Renegotiating the Significance of the Spider Folktale

The enchanted discourse of intercultural communication and globalization cannot be sufficiently enacted without the recognition of the revered place of folktales as cultural products. This paper, while developing its argument on the preponderance of the spider folktale across world cultures, argues that folklore has provided and continues to provide the framework for the breakthrough in inter-cultural communication and global networking. Such terms as the "web spider" and the "world wide web" which are associated with Information technology are hints on the myth of the spider as a global inter-connector. Throughout history, there have been many cultural depictions of the spider in folklore, popular culture, mythology and symbolism. From European, Asian, American, Australian down to African folklores, the spider has been depicted in varied forms ranging from: the cursed to the revered; from the tormentor to the protector, and from the greedy to the inspirer. Although, it has been used to symbolize these tolerable and the despicable ideas, the representation of the spider in many national folklores shows that it is the weaver and the ancestor of intercultural communication. Thus adopting a combination of Comparative Folklore and National Folklore theoretical approaches in interrogating the multifarious characterization of the spider in global cultural production and system of knowing, this paper privileges folklore as a purveyor of globalization. Keywords: Folklore, mythology, intercultural communication, globalization, spide

Folklore for a New Generation: Charles Chesnutt\u27s Updated Trickster Figure

Amidst a surge of plantation fiction writing during the era of American Realism, Charles Chesnutt was arguably one of the most controversial yet prolific authors to address the recent advent of slavery. The Conjure Woman was a publication of seven frame narratives that employed the traditional style of a former slave telling tales of “the old days,” and though Chesnutt\u27s work may have mirrored such authors as Thomas Nelson Page, the tales broke from tradition with surprisingly stark accounts that are clearly based on Chesnutt\u27s own conversations with former slaves. Much like another contemporary, Joel Chandler Harris, Chesnutt looks backward to the trickster figure of African lore and applies its tactics to his narrator, Julius McAdoo, to deliver a comical yet austere discussion of the ills of slavery. In The Conjure Woman, Chesnutt addresses the issues of forced separation of families, slave abuse, dark superstition and the ever-present peril of competition among slaves for limited resources. Furthermore, Chesnutt\u27s use of the trickster figure from Old World lore works to not only symbolize the clash between old and new ideologies, but serves to offer an in-road to brokering peace between white Americans and the newly emancipated slaves. This discussion addresses Chesnutt\u27s updated trickster figure: its similarities to the Old World trickster, its distinguishing qualities that modernized the figure and the role that it plays in The Conjure Woman

Trickster-hero and rite of passage: effects of traditionally west African folklore forms on postcolonial Afro-Caribbean literature

This thesis focuses on the implied presence of African storytelling tropes and characters in postcolonial Afro-Caribbean literature. It argues that Afro-Caribbean writers deliberately utilize these tropes in order to separate themselves from a vestigial European cultural presence. The three main tropes and characters studied in this thesis are rites of passage, Trickster, and Hero. A hybrid character that embodies traits of both Trickster and Hero appears in contemporary Afro-Caribbean literature, suggesting that an African-inspired cultural hero is needed to transcend neocolonial boundaries. African-inspired rites of passage suggest that all Caribbeans of African descent should undergo both cultural and identity-related rites of passage, arriving at a sense of pride in both African pasts and a collective Afro-Caribbean present free from the colonial grasp

Elementary Music through Drama: A Sequential Resource Guide

This project is a sequential resource guide of introductory music experiences that utilize drama techniques all of which culminate with performances. This particular resource guide is designed to be used in conjunction with the general music curriculum where musical ideas and concepts are the main focus for learning. Drama is introduced into the resource guide to augment the existing music program. The use of drama is used to reinforce these musical concepts and thus enhance the musical experience

Divine Parody: Ridiculing America’s Spiritual Crisis in Neil Gaiman’s American Gods

One of the reasons for modern man's mental disorders is a spiritual crisis. In American Gods, Neil Gaiman ridicules this condition by reviving religious, folklore, and mythological entities into new contexts. These entities, however, are simplified as merely intertextual references by most studies. In fact, the new contexts are pragmatically intended to parody American modernity in leading modern man to a spiritual crisis. This research, thus, aims to be a descriptive-analytical study that not only interprets such references through intertextual analysis but also uses pragmatic analysis to examine how the novel parodically portrays modern man's spiritual journey. Deploying Linda Hutcheon's Interpretation of Parody, the Intertextual analysis results that these mythological characters are resituated to represent marginal communities, like ex-convicts, fugitives, drifters, gangsters, immigrants, homeless, laborers, prostitutes, and relocators. While applying Jung's interpretation of the relationship between mythological archetypes and psychological traits, the pragmatic analysis suggests that the hero archetype has been reimagined to caricature modern man's spiritual journey in reconciling his conscious desire with unconscious competencies that resulting disorders in his mental. The factors that influence the hero's mental stability are manifested through the trickster characters in deceiving the hero's consciousness with secular realities, while the sage characters reinforce the hero's unconsciousness through some spiritual journeys

A story, a story: A children\u27s neighborhood performance project

This project entitled A story, a story: a neighborhood performing arts project, focused on transforming a chosen piece of children\u27s literature into a live performance. It was a process driven project which did not solely focus on the final production. Within this project I decided to use the conceptual framework as a basis for teaching drama and movement instead of the rote method of learning

DESIGNING AN ENGLISH STORYBOOK WITH STICKY PICTURES FOR THE TEACHING OF LISTENING AND SPEAKING FOR GRADE V OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

The objective of this research is to design an English storybook with sticky pictures for the students of grade V. The teacher’s guide book is set to help the English teachers in elementary school. This study was concerned with how to provide the English teaching and learning process for the teaching of listening and speaking in elementary schools using the storybook with sticky pictures. The study was educational Research and Development (R & D). The procedures of the study were conducting the needs analysis, writing the course grid, developing the first draft of the storybook with sticky pictures, evaluating and revising the first draft of the storybook with sticky pictures, trying out the second draft of the storybook with sticky pictures, getting expert judgement and evaluating the second draft of the storybook with sticky pictures, and revising and writing the final draft of the storybook with sticky pictures. The instruments of the study were interview guidelines, questionnaires, and observations. The data from the interview and observation were analyzed qualitatively and the data from the questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively through the descriptive statistics. The respondents of the research were 10 people, consisting of 4 English teachers, 2 exuniversity students, and 4 university students. The ex-university students and the university students joined the English for Children concentration. The result of the study is learning media entitled A Storybook with Sticky Pictures completed with the teacher’s guide book with the same title. The teacher’s guide book is completed with a CD. The storybook with sticky pictures consists of three units, “The Thomas Family”, “Mr. Page’s Pet Shop”, and “Why Anansi Has Thin Legs”. Each unit has four activities. They are “Let’s Match and Stick”, “Listen and Match”, “Listen, Stick, and Retell”, and “The Value of the Story”. The other activities are presented in the teacher’s guide book to support the English teaching and learning process. The results of the data computation of the expert judgement shows that the designed storybook with sticky pictures is categorized as good and very good as the mean scores ranged from 3.18 to 3.64

Integrating literature across the first grade curriculum through thematic units

Transformational theoretical model -- Literature-based thematic units -- Reading, writing, listening, and speaking