Kathrin Pöge-Alder speaks on how immigrant storytellers
treat traditional German folktales.
Stories of contact with other cultures are at the heart of the
immigrant experience. These narratives can cultivate a sense of cultural identity,
but they can also be a means of control or exclusion. They are a lens into
the teller’s values and biases, and may reveal the “truth”
but not necessarily the facts. Stories can help sustain a dying language,
and provide a critical perspective on U.S. immigration’s impact not
only on those who encountered the newcomers but on those who stayed behind.
Storytellers, linguists, folklorists, historians, and community members convened
Nov. 11–13, 2004 to explore these threads and much more during a three-day
conference, “Tales of Contact and Change: Traditional Stories of Immigration,”
at the Pyle Center on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. The
event—a blend of panels, scholarly presentations, and evening story
concerts—was co-sponsored by the Max Kade Institute and the Center for
the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures. More than sixty people signed in at
the event, coming from Madison; the Wisconsin communities of Mequon, Onalaska,
Summit Lake, and Sussex; and as far away as California and Germany.
The event kicked off Thursday night with a conference reception prior to a
provocative keynote address by Jack Zipes. A professor at the University of
Minnesota, an internationally recognized scholar on children’s literature,
and an active storyteller in public schools, Zipes’ keynote address
was titled “To Be or Not To Be Eaten: The Survival of Traditional Storytelling.”
He began by noting how folklore is filled with tales of those who eat or beat
their children, including fathers, giants, trolls, sorcerers, mothers, witches,
and enchantresses. Why do the halls of traditional storytelling reverberate
with the tread of the flesh-eating ogre? Why are adults characterized as being
so cruel to children, many times their very own flesh and blood? Could it
have a relationship to how, in these days of war and brutality, when our national
story is clouded by hysteria and our societal fabric is shredded by political
and religious forces, we find ourselves once again destroying our young?
Zipes insists that traditional storytelling has been cultivated to bring about
a cultural identity and foster a sense of community, but it has also been
used to blind people to the realities of social and political conditions and
to maintain conservative religions and the status quo in communities and nation-states.
He calls for a critical analysis of all traditional tales, for us to be wary
of tales that perpetuate racism, war, and other evils. Stories should be documented
and preserved, but not transmitted purely for the sake of tradition if that
tradition has not been critically examined, he said.
Friday morning sessions focused on the use of storytelling in language and
dialect preservation. Most non-English languages spoken in the U.S. are showing
signs of erosion. Stories provide the much-needed cultural context that helps
sustain language use. MKI Co-Director Mark Louden, the panel moderator, said
that renewed interest in ethnic stories, as expressed in such forms as Klezmer
music or Yiddish literature, provide a gateway to language interest. Yet only
recently have linguists begun to see the importance of cultural context in
language preservation, said Rand Valentine, associate professor of Linguistics
and American Indian Studies at UW–Madison.
Other speakers explored the immigrant voice in literature. Holger Kersten,
professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of Magdeburg,
spoke on the popular yet little-researched phenomenon of German-American literary
dialect that appeared in a range of publications and on the stage through
the nineteenth century. Typically written by Americans with no German background,
Kersten sought to reframe this “dialect writing”—formerly
equated with racism and negative stereotyping—as creative and imaginative
word play. Helmut Schmahl, associate professor of history at the University
of Mainz, examined German-language literature of Pomeranian immigrants for
what it reveals about cultural contact and change. He spoke on Albert Friedrich
Grimm (pen name Alfred Ira), one of the most prolific authors in Wisconsin
in the late 1800s. Grimm´s novels, most of which were never translated
into English, have been mostly overlooked by scholars. Schmahl’s examination
revealed that Ira’s books offer a portrayal of the immigrant experience
as seen through his oftentimes unflattering depictions of members of other
ethnic groups, including Yankees, Irish, and Jews.
Not all stories focused on cultural contact from the immigrants’ point
of view. At least two scholars offered lesser-known perspectives on U.S. immigration
stories. Teresa Schenck, professor of American Indian Studies and Life Sciences
Communication at UW–Madison, gave a revealing and at times humorous
account of Ojibwe, Ho Chunk, and Cree Indian stories of their first contact
with Europeans. In contrast to Eurocentric accounts, Native Americans were
intrigued by European tools, but not in awe of the newcomers. In fact, a fair
amount of suspicion accompanied these exchanges, some recorded as early as
1633. Ships were described as moving islands with clouds (sails), and large
trees (masts), and the people were scurrying around like bears. The Europeans'
gift of bread was considered stale while the wine was reminiscent of blood.
Christoph Schmitt, a researcher at the Institut für Volkskunde (Wossidlo-Archiv)
in Rostock (Mecklenburg, Germany), explored the story within the story of
Jürnjakob Swehn, der Amerikafahrer, published in 1917. Author Johannes
Gillhoff (1861–1930) provides the most prominent example of a novel
compiled from letters written by Mecklenburg emigrants. The author used Swehn’s
life to interpret the effects of emigration for a German readership composed
of people who never emigrated.
Saturday’s sessions focused on stories as a vehicle to teach children
skills and help them build content knowledge. Madison elementary school teacher
Mark Wagler, moderator for the morning panel on children learning from stories,
said he centers his curriculum around stories, whether it’s teaching
students how to tell fairytales or having the children become ethnographers
at home or on “cultural tours” across the state. John Berquist,
who works with Chicago youth in the After School Matters Program, shared compelling
examples of students' written work, current slang, and a video of inner-city
children acting out Little Red Riding In the ’Hood.
The
two evening story concerts offered conference-goers a chance to hear stories
from 
both
professional tellers as well as amateurs. Storytellers on Friday night offered
personal anecdotes about cultural contact. Included were Jeffrey Lewis, a
UW–Madison professor of Human Development and Family Studies, who talked
about the mixed messages parents send when trying to prepare an African-American
child for the realities of a racially divided world, and Madison resident
Mai Zong Vue, who used stories about her Hmong grandmother’s U.S. culture
shock as a measure of how far the family had come from the refugee camps in
Thailand to life in Wisconsin.
Larry Johnson's stories included a wide range of props. |
The second evening focused on humor in stories. Among the storytellers were
Berquist, who regaled the audience with Minnesota Iron Range stories and accordion
music, and Elfriede Haese, the daughter and granddaughter of Milwaukee tavern
owners, who told of her grandmother (with biceps like grapefruits) who ran
neighborhood bars in downtown Milwaukee.