Objective
: Students will be able to list at least twenty differences between two versions of a ballad.
Preparation:
Copies of the British and American Negro versions of the “Ballad of Barbara Allen” will be needed. The British version of the ballad can be located in the 1958 edition of the anthology,
Adventures in English Literature
, published by Harcourt, Brace and Company, page 62. The American Negro version of the ballad can be found in Henry Spaldings’
Encyclopedia of Black Folklore and Humor
, (see Bibliography) pages 230-232.
Procedure
: After several oral readings of the two versions of the ballad and after some discussion, ask each student to list at least twenty ways in which the two ballads are similar or different.
Presentation and Discussion
: Ask the students to share their points of comparison. Through discussion ascertain why one culture would add or delete certain information from the ballad. Ask students to draw some conclusions about what is important in one culture as opposed to what is important in another. Ask students what is different about the language usage of the two cultures if this point was not initiated by the students. Finally, ask if the students have any other examples of information crossing cultural domains.
