Before his death in 2011 at the age of sixty-nine, folklorist Peter Narváez was working to create a collection of his research conducted during his thirty-plus years of work as a professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland. As Narváez was not able to complete this collection before his death, his colleagues at Memorial worked quickly to see his work finalized and published. The final result, Sonny’s Dream: Newfoundland Folklore and Popular Culture, is a solid set of fifteen research essays that not only demonstrate a great contribution to the study of Newfoundland folklore, but also a deep and devoted life to folklore as a whole.
An introduction, written by fellow Memorial colleague Neil Rosenberg, expresses the desire among Narváez’s colleagues to promote his work to a greater audience, and thus they interpreted the completion of the text as a memorial of sorts. The introduction contains both a breakdown of the book’s structure and a biography of Narváez, demonstrating how his work could not only be easily thematically categorized, but also intertwined with very influential life events. From his being inspired by the radio broadcasts of Jean Shepherd to being a prominent figure in the music scenes of Indiana, Maine, and Newfoundland, Narváez’s life and work are well-connected in this introduction, and thus establish a proper context for the essays to follow.
In regard to structure, the book’s essays are divided into four thematic sections constructed by Narváez himself for use among students of folklore and music. The first section, which examines folk narrative, consists of two essays: one on the use of fairylore in boundary construction among berry pickers in Newfoundland, and another on Newfoundland media legends about senior citizens. Both essays are heavily rooted in the previous scholarship of folklore, utilizing motif and narrative scholarship of scholars such as Stith Thompson and Herbert Halpert, but they are also quite extensive in their use of archival material, reflecting Narváez’s devotion to building the Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive into something that could inspire future generations of Newfoundlanders. This section serves as a clear transition between the more traditional scholarship surrounding folklore and the later work Narváez conducted in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Narváez’s archival research is also noticeable in the second section of Sonny’s Dream, which examines his studies of customary folklore. While Narváez’s examination of the Newfoundland wake is rooted in the data of many archived interviews, its inclusion of the wake’s role in Newfoundland popular culture demonstrates its author’s fascination with popular culture’s transmission of folk culture. Furthermore, Narváez’s deep interest in radio is evident in the second essay of the section, which discusses the role of sending-off parties in the occupational folklife of those working for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Discussing the duality of maintaining both a public image and a more private, intimate set of folk customs, Narváez’s research on the CBC employees reminds readers that occupational folklife scholarship, while rooted heavily in custom and ritual, includes more than the study of those involved in more historic professions such as logging and fishing.
The next two sections, which discuss vernacular music and popular culture, comprise the majority of the book’s essays and reflect the magnitude of Narváez’s impact on these topics. The first essay of the vernacular music section, which discusses the concept of vernacular song, does a solid job of clearly explaining why the term “vernacular music” can describe the music of particular regions without undermining the value of the concept of “folk music.” The rest of the section, which ranges in topic from the study of satirical song to vernacular responses to the Newfoundland fishery collapse and to the myth of acousticity among blues musicians, utilizes the notion of vernacular music to demonstrate how Narváez’s work brought many forms of music into the realm of folk music scholarship.
The final section on popular culture incorporates ideas from the other sections in a way that shows how the study of narrative, custom, and vernacular music can all be examined by looking at their transmission within popular culture. The use of folklore in constructing nostalgia is well-established in Narváez’s work, as in his attention to radio broadcasts such as The Barrelman and Ted Russell’s “Uncle Mose” as well as in the folklore surrounding the famous train The Newfie Bullet. The other two essays in this section, which deal with country music and music fandom, clearly emphasize the connection between folklore and popular culture by showing how, quite often, popular culture incidents can have just as deep an impact on folklore as folklore has on popular culture. The topics of the section simultaneously deal with popular culture from the years before Newfoundland joined Canada and the current era of Newfoundland as a major oil-producing province, revealing the role of Narváez’s work in contributing to understanding folk and popular culture’s connection.
Ending with a list of Narváez’s publications, research endeavors, and performance contributions, Sonny’s Dream is an outstanding anthology since its essays were revised and constructed by Narváez himself and its thematic material was organized in a similar manner. The book’s structure reflects his own values and interests as well as how he wished his work to be understood by others. With a rich variety of topics that appeal to scholars differing in interests and age, and a deep understanding of broad theoretical concerns in the field of folklore, Sonny’s Dream is a text with much to offer. Whether readers are Newfoundland scholars looking to better understand Narváez’s contribution to understanding the folklore of the province, or persons looking to better understand how blues, country music, and radio broadcasts might be a part of folk culture, they will be rewarded by a riveting, compelling read of the work of someone whose legacy will carry on long beyond his passing.
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[Review length: 963 words • Review posted on December 5, 2012]