Editing Joel Chandler Harris (section)

=== Criticism ===
Critic [[H. L. Mencken]] held a less than favorable view of Harris:

<blockquote>Once upon a time a Georgian printed a couple of books that attracted notice, but immediately it turned out that he was little more than an [[amanuensis]] for the local blacks—that his works were really the products, not of white Georgia, but of black Georgia. Writing afterward as a white man, he swiftly subsided into the fifth rank.<ref>from ''The Sahara of the Bozart''</ref></blockquote>

Keith Cartwright, however, asserts, "Harris might arguably be called the greatest single authorial force behind the literary development of African American folk matter and manner."<ref name="cartwright">[[Joel Chandler Harris#Cartwright|Cartwright]], 126</ref>

In 1981 the writer [[Alice Walker]] accused Harris of "stealing a good part of my heritage" in a searing essay called "Uncle Remus, No Friend of Mine".<ref>{{cite journal|author=Walker, Alice |title=Uncle Remus, No Friend of Mine|journal=[[Southern Exposure (magazine)|Southern Exposure]] |volume= 9 |date=Summer 1981|pages= 29–31}}</ref> [[Toni Morrison]] wrote a novel called ''[[Tar Baby (novel)|Tar Baby]].'' Such a character appears in a folktale recorded by Harris. In interviews, Morrison said she learned the story from her family and owed no debt to him.

Scholars have questioned the authenticity of his main works, citing the difficulty that many white folklorists had in persuading African Americans to divulge their folklore.<ref name="levin">{{cite book | last = Levine | first = Lawrence | title = Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom | url = https://archive.org/details/blackcultureblac00levi | url-access = registration | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1977 | isbn = 0-19-502374-9 }}</ref> But, others note the similarity of African folk stories in several sources that are similar to the Brer Rabbit tales as published, which represent a folk genre. Examples include the [[Ila language]] ''Sulwe mbwakatizha Muzovu'' ("Hare makes the elephant afraid") in Smith & Dale ''The Ila-Speaking Peoples of Northern Rhodesia'' volume 2, page 309.<ref>1920, reprinted 1968 by University Books, New Hyde Park, New York. Also note the 14 examples of tales translated into English where Sulwe, the Hare, is the mischievous main character, volume 2, page 375ff.</ref> In the totally unrelated [[Kanuri people|Kanuri]] or Bornuese culture in Northern Nigeria, such tales as a ''Fable of Jackal and a Hyena''<ref>Sigismund Koelle, ''African Native Literature'', London, 1854, reprinted by Books for Libraries Press, Freeport, New York, 1970. page 162.</ref> display similar themes quite in the Brer Rabbit manner. The difficulties in obtaining printed sources on the African languages may have inhibited these aspects of critical treatment. Some critical scholars cite Uncle Remus as a problematic and contradictory figure: sometimes a mouthpiece for white paternalism, sometimes a stereotype of the black entertainer, and sometimes poetically subversive.<ref name="sundquist">{{cite book | last = Sundquist | first = Eric | title = To Wake the Nations: Race in the Making of American Literature | url = https://archive.org/details/towakenationsrac00sund | url-access = registration | publisher = Belknap Press of Harvard University Press | year = 1998 | isbn = 0-674-89331-X }}</ref>

[[Julius Lester]], a black folklorist and university professor, sees the Uncle Remus stories as important records of black [[folklore]]. He has rewritten many of the Harris stories in an effort to elevate the subversive elements over the purportedly racist ones. Regarding the nature of the Uncle Remus character, Lester said,

<blockquote>There are no inaccuracies in Harris's characterization of Uncle Remus. Even the most cursory reading of the slave narratives collected by the [[Federal Writers' Project]] of the 1930s reveals that there were many slaves who fit the Uncle Remus mold.<ref name="lester">{{cite book | last = Lester | first = Julius | title = The Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit | publisher = Dial Books | year = 1987 | isbn = 0-8037-0271-X }}</ref></blockquote>

The author [[Ralph Ellison]] was positive about Harris' work:

<blockquote>[[Aesop]] and Uncle Remus had taught us that comedy is a disguised form of philosophical instruction; and especially when it allows us to glimpse the animal instincts lying beneath the surface of our civilized affectations.<ref>Ellison, Ralph (1995). ''Going to the Territory''. Vintage. {{ISBN|0-679-76001-6}}. p. 146.</ref></blockquote>

Some 21st-century scholars have argued that the Uncle Remus tales satirized the very "plantation school" that some readers believed his work supported. Critic Robert Cochran noted: "Harris went to the world as the trickster Brer Rabbit, and in the trickster Uncle Remus he projected both his sharpest critique of things as they were and the deepest image of his heart's desire."<ref>{{cite journal |author=Cochran, Robert|title=Black father: the subversive achievement of Joel Chandler Harris |journal=African American Review|year= 2004|volume= 38|issue=1|pages=21–34|doi=10.2307/1512229 |jstor=1512229}}</ref> Harris omitted the Southern plantation house, disparaged the white Southern gentleman, and presented [[miscegenation]] in positive terms. He violated social codes and presented an ethos that would have otherwise shocked his reading audience.<ref>Pamplin, Claire (2006). "Plantation Makeover: Joel Chandler Harris's Myths and Violations", pp. 33–51 in ''The great American makeover: television, history, nation''. Palgrave Macmillan. {{ISBN|1403974845}}.</ref> These recent acknowledgements echo early observations from [[Walter Hines Page]], who wrote in 1884 that Harris "hardly conceals his scorn for the old aristocracy" and makes "a sly thrust at the pompous life of the Old South."<ref>Hendrick, Burton J., ed. (1928). ''The Training of an American: The Earlier Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, 1855–1913''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.</ref>

More recently, the scholars [[Henry Louis Gates Jr.]] and [[Maria Tatar]] debated whether to include Uncle Remus stories in their 2017 volume, ''The Annotated African American Folktales''.<ref name="The Annotated African American Folktales (The Annotated Books) - Google Books">{{cite book |last1=Gates |first1=Henry Louis |last2=Tatar |first2=Maria |title=The Annotated African American Folktales (The Annotated Books) |date=2017 |publisher=Liveright |isbn=9780871407566 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ITtbDgAAQBAJ&q=slavery}}</ref> Ultimately they decided on inclusion, along with a detailed preface on the critical issues surrounding Harris, race, and cultural appropriation.<ref>[https://www.npr.org/2017/11/10/563110377/annotated-african-american-folktales-reclaims-stories-passed-down-from-slavery ''Annotated African American Folktales Reclaims Stories Passed Down From Slavery '']</ref>