Blog Post Week 10

Something I found interesting during our study of Pamela Colman-Smith's Annancy Stories this week was learning that Smith was also active in the Celtic revival movement through the illustration of Celtic folklore. Through my own research of Smith for my capstone project, I've learned how interested she was in folklore of a wide array of different cultures, but I didn't realize the extent to which she was active in reproducing them beyond Annancy Stories. I'd be interested to learn the extent to which her reproduction of Celtic folklore was mediated to be more palatable to a non-Celtic audience in the same vein Annancy Stories was mediated to be more palatable to a Western audience. I think a comparison between the two could reveal Smith's motivations behind mediating Annancy Stories. Were her reproduction of Celtic folklore comparatively less mediated, I think that would provide support for the interpretation that Annancy Stories is mediated to minimize cultural dissonance. If her reproduction of Celtic folklore was equally or even more mediated than Annancy Stories, on the other hand, I think that would provide support for the interpretation that her mediation of Jamaican folklore served a purely or primarily aesthetic function. I intend to further research this and use these comparisons to refine my capstone project.