The Opposing Visions of Joel Chandler Harris & Charles W. Chesnutt
These two extracts exemplify two distinct traditions in African American Literature. In fact, since Harris was of white descent, the Uncle Remus stories as a whole represent a white concept of African American culture, suitably diluted and sanitized, it could be argued, for a predominately white readership. It is true that Harris as an illegitimate son of an Irish immigrant from a very poor background and sporting a vivid shock of very red hair might have felt himself slightly ostracized in Southern society; it is also true that he spent much of his time as an apprentice on the Turnwold plantation, during the American ...
