The proposed article is an introduction to the debate between Ralph Ellison and Stanley Hyman on the relationships between black modern North American literature, and black North American folklore. The central issues of this 1958 polemic are introduced, (does Afro-American culture employ archetypes from pre-colonial Africa ?) as well as the contemporary relevance of this discussion, particularly on notions of under-culture, resistance and domination, (particularly the role of the mask in popular American culture.) This article shows how Ellison intended to shift the problematic surrounding the notion of folklore, seen as intangible and related to ethnic identity, towards more shifting notions of “lore”, that were much more suited to the existential dilemmas of the modern world.