The Voice of the Folk: Folklore and American Literary Theory [Paperback]

Gene Bluestein (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 170 pages
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press; First Edition ~1st Printing edition (March 31, 1972)
• ISBN-10: 0870230980
• ISBN-13: 978-0870230981
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,796,460 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Voice of the Folk, February 26, 2007

By 

cortezhill - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Voice of the Folk: Folklore and American Literary Theory (Paperback)

In The Voice of the Folk, Gene Bluestein examines a variety of attempts by writers, critics, and folklorists to define an Amercan folk tradition and to understand its relationship to American life and literature.

The author traces from German philosopher and historian Johann Gotfried von Herder, whose folk ideology became a germinal force in American thought, through Emerson and Whitman to Constance Rourke and the Lomaxes, the notion that folklore is an embodiment of significant cultural values of a nation or ethnic group. Bluestein demonstrates that folklore thereby provides a rich basis from which formal literature can grow.

He applies his these to American culture with particular reference to Miss Rourke's treatment of the folklore Yankee and backwoodsman, the influence of the "Arkansas Traveler" pattern of frontier storytelling, and the influence of Negro blues and the poetry of "rock."

--- from book's back cover