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RE: Folktales, Race and Class Struggles in Afro-Venezuelan Literature
That's interesting. Can you tell us somehting about the character of Bro Rabbit?
That's interesting. Can you tell us somehting about the character of Bro Rabbit?
Greetings, @manoldonchev.
Just in case you have the time, you can check the posts below where I discussed in more details the topic. The short answer to the question, though, is that this is a trickster character, popularized in America by Joel Chandler Harris in his book Uncle Remus, his songs and his sayings (1881). The rabbit of the stories is one of the many impersonations of the African tricksters whose stories, told by the black slaves whenerver in the americas they ended up, adopted different forms and shapes. The trickster (sometimes rabbit, sometimes spider, sometimes human) may trick for no reason or may trick to survive. He also gets tricked. He can be a mythical figure associated with creation myths, or a more modern figure associated with more human affairs.
I found rabbit stories publications in every latin american country (even in Argentina, where black population was incipient). The whole caribbean has rabbit stories, as well as other territories where Africans were brought as slaves.
Part I: https://steemit.com/equipocardumen/@hlezama/tio-conejo-african-roots-and-venezuelan-renditions-part-i
Part II: https://steemit.com/english/@hlezama/tio-conejo-african-roots-and-venezuelan-renditions-part-ii
Part III: https://steemit.com/english/@hlezama/tio-conejo-african-roots-and-venezuelan-versions-part-iii
Part IV: https://steemit.com/history/@hlezama/tio-conejo-african-roots-and-venezuelan-versions-part-iv
Part V: https://steemit.com/english/@hlezama/tio-conejo-folktales-african-roots-and-venezuelan-renditions-part-v
Part VI: https://steemit.com/english/@hlezama/tio-conejo-s-trickster-tales-african-roots-and-venezuelan-
renditions-part-vi
Part VII: https://steemit.com/english/@hlezama/tio-conejo-s-trickster-tales-african-roots-and-venezuelan-renditions-part-vii
I guess the spider associated character Anansi that I read about in modern fiction by Neil Gaiman (although fiction, American Gods is quite on topic , I feel) has a lot in common, then.
Yep. Anansi is the source out if which brother rabbit emerged. Gaiman also wrote Anansi Boys. There the connection is more clearly established