Literature review of caribbean folktales

Caribbean Folktales, or ‘Crick Crack Stories’ ( Creighton. A., Stabroek News, 2009) are the essence of Caribbean culture. The stories may not be shared as they once were, but they are bound up in the breath and cadence of the islands, understood implicitly by those from there, the subtext to all that ‘there’ is.

Some, like “The White Dog,” (Latvia) have elements of a traditional European fairy tale. Our two Japanese stories are more philosophical, each in its own way. Two of our African stories are mostly fun -- the forerunners of the Brer Rabbit stories -- but “How The Hawk Chose His Food” is a fable that Aesop might have envied.

Ananse is the best known character of Caribbean stories, and in the Caribbean he is a spider. Ananse hails from West Africa where he was once the trickster god. But he is no longer a god. Kidnap, enslavement and hunger reformed Ananse and to survive he became half-man, half-spider. In Caribbean tales he is either a lazy con-man or a tricky spider.

Creative Writing Project Use the folk tales to teach styles of writing such as persuasive, descriptive and narrative in a fun and educational format -- a newspaper! Cultural studies Learn more about the various countries and cultures from which the stories come.