This week we discussed Pamela Colman Smith’s Annancy Stories which I had slight knowledge on based on our presentations in the early weeks of this class. However, after today's presentation and discussion on the text, I gained a much more clear perspective on the text as a whole including its illustrations. Specifically, I enjoyed Professor Kooistra's comments on the folklore tropes which are apparent in the text such as Toad's transformation illustrated through his change of clothing. Furthermore, I was not aware of  Pamela Colman Smith’s ambiguous racial identity which sparked some really informative discussions based on her work being considered as a cultural appropriation of Jamaican and African culture. Although I think it is important to have knowledge based on the author's background, I believe Smith's work does more good than bad. We can look at our own selection of readings for this course, and realize that her work brings a new perspective to Victorian literature, one which represents and informs readers of the African heritage through storytelling. Soemthing else I found intriguing was Emma's question on what the positioning of characters reflected in the image and upon thinking about this question, I realized Smith's placement of the Victorian man over the Jamaican character reflets the tension between their power dynamic. The Jamaican figure is literally on the ground, looking up at the Victorian figure (illustrating his authority over her) while the Prince is looking down on her, and therefore showing his patriarchal power over her. The humour involved in the story with the use of trickster figures is something I have always appreciated in Indigenous literature because it informs us of folklore figures in other cultures. Thus,  Pamela Colman Smith’s Annancy Stories is able to do the same by introducing Annancy ( or Anansi ) to her readers and therefore allowing the stories of African folklore to become prevalent to this day.