Reading and Writing Uncle Remus:
Soliciting proposals for an essay collection on the legacy and future of the Uncle Remus stories.

Georgia author Joel Chandler Harris is most widely known for his creation of the Uncle Remus character, first in the Atlanta Constitution and then in wildly popular collections of stories. By his death in 1908, Harris enjoyed a level of fame and public approval consonant with Mark Twain's. Harris's use of a vanishing dialect and preservation and dissemination of African folklore endeared him to (some of) the American public at the turn of the twentieth century. His Uncle Remus stories were considered appropriate for readers and listeners of all ages, and it wasn't unusual for them to be official or unofficial parts of school curricula.

However, by the second half of the twentieth century, Harris's literary reputation began to tarnish and the public's comfort with the content and provenance of his stories diminished. Among the troubling aspects of the once-beloved stories are the Uncle Remus character himself, a happy former slave who still enjoys catering to the descendants of his one-time owners, and Harris's appropriation of African cultural traditions and folklore for a largely-white audience.

Joel Chandler Harris has become a complicated literary figure, though one deeply embedded in Georgia's cultural history. His texts, likewise, live in a bit of a shadowland, known but seldom publicly performed or read, sites of concern and anxiety for educators, parents, and adult readers who are no longer assured of the cultural valence of their active engagement with the stories.

In multiple ways, this project will explore Harris's legacy and the place – if there is one – for Uncle Remus in the modern South, in America today, and in the pantheon of children's literature. Submissions are invited that engage with cultural and historical contexts of the Uncle Remus stories, that interrogate specific Uncle Remus stories, that consider the linguistic and narrative roots of the texts, and that consider if or how the texts could be utilized in K-12 or college-level classrooms. Other topics engaging with Harris's legacy or the stories are likewise welcome.

Interested writers should send a 500-word abstract and a c.v. to lamaynard@gru.edu by May 15, 2015.