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ISBN-10: 0253339294
ISBN-13: 9780253339294
Edition: 2001
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A Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2003Legend and Belief: Dialectics of a Folklore Genre is a descriptive and analytical study of the legend, the most prolific and characteristic form of folklore in contemporary Western civilisation. Not that the legend does not have ancient roots; like the tale, the joke, the ballad, proverb or mummery, it was also a part of an archaic pre-industrial tradition. But the legend, as old as conversation and debate carrying relevant problems of the human condition, was able to survive technological inventions of our time and remained contemporaneous, whereas many other genres succumbed to their own anachronism. The legend's concerns are universal and eternal.… They deal with the most crucial questions of the world and human life, in fear of the unknown, human mortality asking "is the order of the world as we learned to know it? Can we expect life will run its course as we were taught it should? Do we know all the forces that regulate the universe and our life, or are there hidden dimensions secret to us? And if there are unknown forces, can they be identified, changed, avoided, or exploited to our benefit?" The legend touches upon the most sensitive areas of our existence, this is why stories about supernatural encounters, possessions, divine and infernal miracles, evil spirits, monsters, prophetic dreams, as well as horror stories about insane and criminal agencies inundate the premises of the urban/industrial world. Industrial advancement does not change the basic fragility of human life, and does not dispel the mental and psychical need to respond in the form of legend to social crises, conflicts, and anxieties; the sensation of daydreams and nightmares; the excitement of joy over luck, success, and adventure; and grief over tragedy.Contemporary society has created more subcultures and folklore-bearing social groups than ever before. Commercialisation and consumer orientation of the mass media helped legends to travel faster and farther, and generated more legend-communicating groups than ever before. Legends are not only communicated orally, face-to-face, but appear in the press, on the radio and TV as well as on countless websites of the internet and e-mail to keep snowballing and generating new waves of the "culture of fear."