SOURCE: "American Folk Laughter in Robert Coover's 'The Public Burning'," in Contemporary Literature, Vol. 28, No. 2, Summer, 1987, pp. 239-56.

In the following essay, Estes examines Robert Coover's use of folk styles, particularly an unsentimental type of humor, in The Public Burning.

Robert Coover has shown a continuing interest in the sociological significance of folklore and in the techniques of folk narrative. In The Universal Baseball Association (1968), the ball players are an occupational folk group complete with legendary heroes and their own ballads, maintaining their sense of identity partly through the folklore Coover has invented for them. In Pricksongs & Descants (1969), the retellings of "Hansel and Gretel" and "Little Red Riding Hood" show his interest in the plots, motifs, and narrative strategies of the European Märchen, and "The Magic Poker" is an unconventional fairy tale of Coover's own devising from a variety of traditional tale types and motifs.¹ Another piece...