Sounding a shy tradition: Oral and written styles of American mountain marchen

Past literary critics of the Marchen defined the genre by identifying it in terms of a relatively small number of presumably universal traits. This st udy considers the extent to which the Marchen of the Appalachian and Ozark regions embody three of those 'universals': 1) a perfectly memorable plot c onstructed to convey an invariant meaning; 2) sharp, bright, and sparse ima gery, and 3) a tone of magical wonder. I examine the published tales of the regions' best-known collectors: Richard Chase, Leonard Roberts, and Vance Randolph. Comparing Chase's written renditions to the oral performances of Sam Harmon, I find that Chase misrepresents and undercuts the Marchen aesth etics of the family from whom he claimed to have gotten his tales. I examin e Leonard Roberts's published versions of tales told by Jane Muncy and, con sidering the oral testimony and performances of Sam Harmon, I find that Cha se misrepresents and undercuts the Marchen aesthetics of the family from wh om he claimed to have gotten his tales. I examine Leonard Roberts's publish ed versions of tales told by Jane Muncy and, considering the oral testimony and performances of the Muncy family, conclude that Roberts's tales are la rgely faithful to the tellers' oral styles. I end with an appreciation of V ance Randolph, whose tales demonstrate a regional tendency to treat the Mar chen not as a tale of wonder, but as legend or a joke. None of the three un iversals posited by literary scholars effectively characterizes the oral st yles of the American mountain Marchen.