Traditions and Transitions folk narrative in the contemporary world
16-20
July 2001 The University of Melbourne, Australia
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Traditions and Transitions folk narrative in the contemporary world |
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The goal of this paper is to test the hypothesis that a
systematic survey of The Vanishing Hitchhiker, arguably the best known
of urban legends, will lead to important information about the teller and the
social context of this narrative. The 136 versions of the legend in the study
include demographic and contextual information that make such a study possible.
The legends were collected in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, a
Mexican-American culture area with a population of 1 000 000.
The paper will discuss the relationships between the tellers, their age, their
gender and the legend itself. For example, a statistical review of the legends
shows that more males believe that the events in the story are true than do
women. The data also show that more males are likely to have heard the story
first while talking, while more women are likely to have heard the narrative in
story-telling sessions. It is hoped that this analysis will shed light on the
overall social context of this legend.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | main abstract index | main congress page |
| N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |