Woody Guthrie, America's Merry Prankster

Authors

  • Kristin Lems

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5420/wga.0.101

Keywords:

Woody Guthrie, merry prankster, trickster, Mullah Nasreddin, Nasreddin Hoca, Till Eugenspiel, folklore

Abstract

A “merry prankster” is a colorful person, real or legendary, who pokes fun at authority and the rich, powerful, and arrogant. The merry prankster appears small and powerless, but manages to outwit his opponents, often summing up the situation with witty one-liners — signal examples from medieval history and folklore are Mullah Nasreddin and Till Eugenspiel. In many ways, Woody Guthrie is an American merry prankster. Small in stature but large of intelligence, he used his wits, musical creativity, and people skills to defend the poor against the rich and powerful. He consistently made enemies of the privileged and those in authority, quitting and losing jobs, and he had to find clever ways to wriggle his way out of his problems, while always standing up for his beliefs and singing out boldly about them. This article situates Guthrie in the larger folkloric tradition of the “merry prankster,” using examples from history and folklore to make the case that Woody Guthrie’s life follows this tradition.

Author Biography

  • Kristin Lems
    Kristin Lems is a folksinger who also became a professor, and she sings heartfelt, hard-hitting and inspiring songs that tell the “backstories” behind the headlines. In addition to performances in restaurants and coffeehouses and rites of passage, she has sung for progressive causes in many prestigious venues. Kristin’s music is represented on the Grammy-nominated CD anthology, The Best of Broadside (Smithsonian/Folkways), and her satirical and poignant songs have been recorded and published widely, including “Talking Gender Neutral Blues,” “Days of the Theocracy,” “How Nice,” (about marriage
    equality, but recorded in 1979), and her Dixieland satire, “Mammary Glands.” She is a full professor in the College of Education at National Louis University in Chicago, where she works with teachers in the area of language education (ESL and bilingual). In addition to writing a number of books and articles related to reading and English as a new language, she has composed eight CDs of original songs. Her newest album, You, Me, and All of the Above, has many songs in the spirit of Woody Guthrie, who will always be one of her heroes. Contact: kristinlems@gmail.com, or www.kristinlems.com.

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Published

2015-06-24

Issue

Vol. 1 (2015)

Section

Articles

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