La persistance du folklore américain

[jerome]

The Persistence of American Folklore in Fantastic Literature, un article à lire ici...

American folklore is a homegrown “mythology” so fresh it usually draws on historical persons or incidents, transforming them into fiction with a characteristic mix of exaggeration and wry humor. The real American Gods aren’t Odin in a Cadillac (as cool as that is). They are characters like Gaiman’s barefoot and buckskin-clad John Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed. Calamity Jane, John Henry, and Mike Fink, king of the flatboatmen, typify the larger-than-life avatars of early American life whose stories first appeared in the period between the Revolution and the Civil War, in tall tales, popular song, regional almanacs, and embellished biographies. They show up in westerns, stories of the industrial revolution, the vanishing hitchhikers and organ thieves of urban legend, and even the eye-popping fabulism of online clickbait and fake news.