Topic: Mapping the Variation of books written about Caribbean Folklore The Project Name: Following Folklore Caribbean Folklore also known as ‘Cric Crack Stories’ in the West Indies are what I would consider to be one of the few building blocks of my childhood imagination development. I can vividly remember as a young child, when my Grandmother or Aunts would tell my cousins and I stories about Ananse, Jumbies, Soucouyants and Lagahoos. Overtime, I learnt that these stories are not only unique to Dominica, but they are unique to the Caribbean as a whole. Each individual country in the Caribbean, although separated by water, share some of the same folktales and superstitions. When I started working on the Writers, Readers and Scenes: Visualizing Caribbean Literary Encounters digital project, I was tasked with collecting all the books written by Caribbean authors from 2011 to 2022. During my retrieval of these literary works, I was met with a large collection of books from many different genres. However, while cleaning the data in the spreadsheet, I took special interest in the books that were written about Caribbean Folklore. Hereon, I decided that my digital project will focus on Mapping the Variations of Books Written about Caribbean Folklore.
Research Question:
As for the research questions I would like to explore, this project could possibly answer whether or not the different Caribbean countries share the same folktales or superstitions or do they vary according to location, religion or culture. At the same time, it can show the differences; for example in the names of the different folktale characters across the Caribbean region.
Personally, my vision for the Finding Folklore project is to showcase a single map of the Caribbean where you can click on a specific country of your choice and it will depict the different folktales that the people on that island believe in. At the same time, this project aims to show some examples of folklore books written by authors from that specific country. However, this project will follow the same rule of the Writers, Readers and Scenes: Visualizing Caribbean Literary Encounters digital project and will only portray the Countries that have a book written about their folklore by a Caribbean writer on the visual map. Moreover, my goal is to show that even though we are separated by water, we as a Caribbean still share the similar folktales and superstitions that shape our entire existence and beliefs.
Based on the readings by Miriam Posner, I was blessed with a wide variety of information that might help me to get a handle on the different kinds of tools and technologies available for use. However, I have decided to use the following tools to bring my project to life: The Tools ArcGIS StoryMaps - tool for digital storytelling that can help one tell visual stories using custom maps Knightlab JS Timeline - tool that allows one to build a visual and interactive timeline. Zotero - tool that stores, manages and cites bibliographic references like books and articles. The Method Search the internet (google books, worldcat, amazon books etc) to find primary sources/ the books written by Caribbean Authors about Folklore. Save the retrieved books onto Zotero, then create a spreadsheet using the data. Create a timeline using the data from the spreadsheet. This timeline will show the period over which the books about folklore were written as well as who wrote these books. Use ArcGIS StoryMaps to create a map of the Caribbean that will show the Variations in Folklore Characters and stories across the Caribbean. This map will also show the similarities of the folklore that two or more countries may share.