The Preservation of Cultural Memory in African-American Fiction

Abstract

The aim of this paper will be to attempt an examination of how folktales have been a part of the cultural memory of African-Americans and how it has been explored through literature, especially a reworking of these tales into short stories and other forms of fiction. It will further be attempted to explore the sense of identity in the African-American community as can be found in these stories and how much of that still persists in their consciousness and imagination to this day.