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Abstract
This dissertation explores representations and tactics in 114 folktales, published between 2000-2018, emanating from four cultural communities Affrilachian, Anglo Appalachian, Cherokee and Shawnee in the Appalachian Region. Using Michel de Certeaus theory of tactics (1984), or subversive practices used by marginalized groups that offer them agency in spaces dominated by the powerful, this study examines the ability of folktales to be counternarratives and cultural storehouses for tactics. I also explore representations found in these folktales to discover how they work to reinforce and/or reinvent long-held stereotypes of Appalachians. The research questions for this study are: How do folktales hailing from the Appalachian Region (e.g., Affrilachian, Anglo Appalachian, Cherokee and Shawnee) reinvent and/or reinforce representations of Appalachians? What prevailing tactics (de Certeau, 1984) do the authors and illustrators from the Appalachian Region include in their folktales, and how do these tactics serve as ideological disruptions of who and what constitute Appalachia?Critical content analysis was used to analyze these stories. Representations from the folktales were grouped in the following nine themes: (1) Reinforced by Representation, Reinvented through Contextual and Dialectic Synergy; (2) Reinforced with Wisdom, Reinvented by Wisdom; (3) Reinforced through Language, Reinvented through Language; (4) Reinforced with Self-trust; (5) Reinforced Sense of Place; (6) Reinforced by Human Characters; (7) Reinvented by Animal Tales and Tricksters; (8) Reinforced an Anglo-Saxon Appalachia, and; (9) Reinforced Gendered Representations. The tactics garnered from the folktales coalesced into three groupings: (1) Practicing Mtis; (2) Practicing Interdependence, and; (3) Practicing Stereotype-Fu.Many of the folktales provided complex recurring protagonists that evaded description. When examined comprehensively and as part of a contextual nexus, many of the representations negated each other through a dialectic synergy both reinforcing and/or reinventing. However, if the same representations are examined one by one, outside of their contexts, it would seem that they reinforce the scope of generalizations that have historically plagued Appalachians. Additionally, it was found that these folktales are teeming with a variety of tactics that work alone or in sequence to disrupt stereotypical ideologies of what Appalachians are capable of being, doing, and accomplishing.