Radcliffe, Lectures on Negro Proverbs

Radcliffe, Lectures on Negro Proverbs

A series of writings in the form of lectures (though there is no evidence any were actually delivered), this book offers “academic” analysis of what the author describes as “Negro Proverbs.” These could be more familiarly described as folk tales, and if the author had done more to detail the events of the tales themselves, this book would qualify as a literary volume. As it focuses instead on the origins and implications of each “proverb,” it may be better understood as a form of literary analysis combined with early sociology.

J. Radcliffe

Kingston, Jamaica, 1869