Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Coles, Robert - Ed Walraven (essay date 1994)

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Ed Walraven (essay date 1994)

SOURCE: "Folklore in the Writings of Robert Coles, M.D." in Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin, Vol. LVI, No. 4, 1994, pp. 134-144.

[In the following essay, Walraven examines Coles' writings for elements of folklore and shows how some of his methods and concerns resemble those of ethnography.]

More than 30 years ago, Richard M. Dorson outlined a method of studying genuine folklore in the printed texts of American literature, a method scholars employ as an identify-and-interpret approach, with emphasis on first identifying the folklore (Dorson 1957; Stahl 1983). Dorson referred to creative writing, specifically novels, short stories, poems and/or plays. This is an approach I attempt here with what is perhaps an unconventional source of literature—the nonfiction writings of psychiatrist Robert Coles, M.D.

I come at this challenge from a variety of viewpoints that are reflective, of course, of my own...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Melvin J. Friedman (review date Fall 1982)
   2. Neil Postman (review date 19 January 1986)
   3. Katherine Paterson (review date 2 February 1986)
   4. Jonathan Kellerman (review date 9 February 1986)
   5. New Yorker (review date 10 February 1986)
   6. John Leo (review date 17 March 1986)
   7. Kenneth L. Woodward (review date 6 September 1987)
   8. Jeff Dietrich (review date 13 September 1987)
   9. Fitzhugh Mullan (review date 8 May 1988)
   10. Helen Bevington (review date 26 February 1989)
   11. Francis X. Rocca (review date March 1989)
   12. Iain Bamforth (review date 7-13 July 1989)
   13. Sanford Pinsker (essay date Summer 1989)
   14. Herbert Mitgang (review date 21 November 1990)
   15. Laura Sessions Stepp (review date 23 December 1990)
   16. The New Yorker (review date 7 January 1991)
   17. Virginia C. Hoch (review date 26 August-2 September 1992)
   18. A. J. S. (review date 1993)
   19. Michelle Huneven (essay date 3 October 1993)
   20. Robert A. Sirico (review date 15 November 1993)
   21. Gail Russell Chaddock (review date 9 December 1993)
   22. Ed Walraven (essay date 1994)
   23. Paulina F. Kernberg (review date October 1994)
   24. Richard Bernstein (review date 27 January 1997)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright