Start Date
4-9-2021 10:45 AM
End Date
4-9-2021 12:00 PM
Disciplines
United States History
Subjects
Davy Crockett (1786-1836) -- Influence, Davy Crockett (1786-1836) -- Legends -- History and criticism, White nationalism -- United States -- History -- Sources, American almanacs -- Tennessee
Description
Abstract: Davy Crockett’s Almanacs, published between 1835 and 1856, have been held as a prime example of nineteenth-century Anglo-American folklore. While authors have commented on their comic qualities and racist content, what has been lacking is a rhetorical analysis, as suggested by Folklorist Stephen Gencarella, which would examine the ways in which “folklore is not something that a folk does, rather… something which constitutes a folk.” This paper analyzes the almanac stories dealing with native peoples in order to understand the political and ideological discourse that was propagated by these publications. Rather than genuine folk-stories faithfully recorded by publishers, these almanacs were creations of popular culture, distributed to a wide audience and composed with specific economic and nationalistic goals. Their purpose, in addition to generating profit, was to serve as a form of cultural hegemony for their urban middleclass readership by creating a literary fantasy that had broad appeal among Anglo-Americans and might be considered an early form of white American nationalism. Unlike the historical David Crockett, whose relations with native peoples were more ambivalent, the fictional Crockett of the Almanacs was an unapologetic nativist and terrorizer who sought nothing less than the white racial domination of North America.
PART OF SESSION 2C. INDIAN WARS:
Comment: J. William T. Youngs, Eastern Washington University
Chair: Roger Wiblin, Brigham Young University-Idaho
Brant Gorham, University of Idaho, undergraduate student
“We were Like Deer, They were Like Grizzly Bears: How the United States Government Stole Nez Perce Land and along with it Tribal Culture and Sovereignty”
Dameon Hansen, Idaho State University, graduate student
“Evolution of the Mexican American Border: How the Victorio Campaign in 1880 Changed Mexican American Border Management”
Darren L. Letendre, Portland State University, undergraduate student
“A ‘Superlicious’ Feast: A Rhetorical Analysis of Davy Crockett’s Almanacs as an Early Form of White National Identity”
Rights
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/35257
Included in
A ‘Superlicious’ Feast: A Rhetorical Analysis of Davy Crockett’s Almanacs as an Early Form of White National Identity
Abstract: Davy Crockett’s Almanacs, published between 1835 and 1856, have been held as a prime example of nineteenth-century Anglo-American folklore. While authors have commented on their comic qualities and racist content, what has been lacking is a rhetorical analysis, as suggested by Folklorist Stephen Gencarella, which would examine the ways in which “folklore is not something that a folk does, rather… something which constitutes a folk.” This paper analyzes the almanac stories dealing with native peoples in order to understand the political and ideological discourse that was propagated by these publications. Rather than genuine folk-stories faithfully recorded by publishers, these almanacs were creations of popular culture, distributed to a wide audience and composed with specific economic and nationalistic goals. Their purpose, in addition to generating profit, was to serve as a form of cultural hegemony for their urban middleclass readership by creating a literary fantasy that had broad appeal among Anglo-Americans and might be considered an early form of white American nationalism. Unlike the historical David Crockett, whose relations with native peoples were more ambivalent, the fictional Crockett of the Almanacs was an unapologetic nativist and terrorizer who sought nothing less than the white racial domination of North America.
PART OF SESSION 2C. INDIAN WARS:
Comment: J. William T. Youngs, Eastern Washington University
Chair: Roger Wiblin, Brigham Young University-Idaho
Brant Gorham, University of Idaho, undergraduate student
“We were Like Deer, They were Like Grizzly Bears: How the United States Government Stole Nez Perce Land and along with it Tribal Culture and Sovereignty”
Dameon Hansen, Idaho State University, graduate student
“Evolution of the Mexican American Border: How the Victorio Campaign in 1880 Changed Mexican American Border Management”
Darren L. Letendre, Portland State University, undergraduate student
“A ‘Superlicious’ Feast: A Rhetorical Analysis of Davy Crockett’s Almanacs as an Early Form of White National Identity”