In the following excerpt, Dseagu explores the influence of folklore on areas such as plot structure and characterization in a number of African novels, including Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

In the following excerpt, Baker identifies varieties of typology in African-American folklore by examining an array of literary forms ranging from sermons to blues songs.

In the following essay, Hill explores themes common to African and African-American folklore through an examination of elements, including storytelling and folk sayings, in novels and other writings.)

In the following essay, Petesch explores the recurrence of certain folkloric themes and character types in the works of African-American writers such as Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, and many others.

In the following excerpt, Brookes makes a case that Joel Chandler Harris was a literary artist rather than a mere recorder of others' tales.

In the following essay, Lee explores the distinctions between fact and legend in the literature of the western, and recounts tales that made their way into the lore of the Old West.

In the following essay, Cleary identifies Thomas Berger's Little Big Man as a parody not only of Old West mythology, but of other myths as well.

In the following essay, Clements compares the uses of folk history in works by N. Scott Momaday and Leslie Marmon Silko.

In the following essay, Diepeveen examines the often ambivalent attitudes of Harlem Renaissance writers and thinkers toward the folklore of Africa and, more specifically, of African America.

In the following essay, Dekker and Harris find evidence of "second sight" and other ghostly folk notions in Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms.

In the following essay, Bluestein examines the methodology of, and resulting themes in, Constance Rourke's American Humor.

In the following excerpt, Barnes takes issue with prevailing attitudes in folklore criticism.

In the following essay, Coffin presents F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby as a retelling of an old folk tale with elements similar to those of John Keats's "La Belle Dame sans Merci."

In the following excerpt, Hudson examines the folkloric roots of works by an array of American poets from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to Wallace Stevens.

In the following essay, Field identifies extensive uses of folklore in Thomas Wolfe's fragmentary novel The Hills Beyond, particularly in Wolfe's portrayal of the family's larger-than-life patriarch.

In the following essay, Bell compares the forging of an African-American literary consciousness in the writings of James Weldon Johnson, Alain Locke, and others, with the development of national identity in the works of European writers.

In the following essay, Drake distinguishes the work of the folklorist from that of his or her colleagues in a typical English department.

In the following essay, Brown assesses the embodiment of the Native American oral tradition in don Juan, the Indian sorcerer who figures prominently in Journey to Ixtlan and other books by Carlos Castaneda.

In the following essay, Lee assesses the use of dialect in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, and in works by Toni Morrison and GayI Jones.

In the following excerpt, Bell discusses the formation of an African-American "high art" in contrast to the literature of the black folk consciousness.