Urban Legends and American Identity
Location
Beaman A&B
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
25-10-2010 7:00 PM
Description
Have you ever received an email that begins, “This is an actual true story and not one of those Internet myths. This actually happened to the daughter of my cousin’s best friend who lives over in Chicago”? If so, you have likely received a version of an urban legend. Folklore scholars label a story an urban legend if it has a contemporary setting, circulates widely, is told and retold with varying details, and is believed by its narrator to be true. Although a similar incident may once have taken place in real life, the events described in an urban legend most likely never happened: as the story spreads from person to person over time, the “particulars” change in a process that forms a psychologically satisfying narrative. Thus, these tales convey culturally revealing messages rather than historical truth. This presentation examines “classic” and more recent urban legends (think “The Hook Man,” “The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs,” and “The Mouse in the Coke Bottle” but also “The Gang Initiation,” “The Clown Statue,” and “The Mrs. Fields Cookie Recipe”) alongside national legends (Johnny Appleseed, Wild Bill Hickok) and family legends in order to consider the ways in which such folklore both reflects and shapes our personal and communal identities.
Recommended Citation
Cox, Cynthia, "Urban Legends and American Identity" (2010). Humanities Symposium. 25.
https://repository.belmont.edu/humanities_symposium/2010/2010/25
Urban Legends and American Identity
Beaman A&B
Have you ever received an email that begins, “This is an actual true story and not one of those Internet myths. This actually happened to the daughter of my cousin’s best friend who lives over in Chicago”? If so, you have likely received a version of an urban legend. Folklore scholars label a story an urban legend if it has a contemporary setting, circulates widely, is told and retold with varying details, and is believed by its narrator to be true. Although a similar incident may once have taken place in real life, the events described in an urban legend most likely never happened: as the story spreads from person to person over time, the “particulars” change in a process that forms a psychologically satisfying narrative. Thus, these tales convey culturally revealing messages rather than historical truth. This presentation examines “classic” and more recent urban legends (think “The Hook Man,” “The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs,” and “The Mouse in the Coke Bottle” but also “The Gang Initiation,” “The Clown Statue,” and “The Mrs. Fields Cookie Recipe”) alongside national legends (Johnny Appleseed, Wild Bill Hickok) and family legends in order to consider the ways in which such folklore both reflects and shapes our personal and communal identities.
Comments
Convo: AL