Last lecture Todays lecture

1
Last lecture Todays lecture

• American legends
• As folk narrative that uses archetypical imagery
• As narrative that reflects social issues

• Legends and other genres
• Historical legends/ urban legends
• Russian legends of both types

2
Tale Myth

• Fiction
• Timeless, placeless
• Actors are human or non-human
• Secular
• No restrictions on audience
• Individual

• Fact
• Cosmogonic, beginning of time
• Actors are non-human
• Sacred, ritualistic
• Special audience (initiation?)
• Social

3
Legend between tale and myth

• Fact, not fiction
• Located in a time and place, but one more recent
• Secular, but social concerns, norms upheld
• Actors human or non-human
• Told any time and place (not ritual context)
• Audience restricted not for kids

4
Historical legend Urban legend

• Further back in time
• Actors can be saints, or prominent historical
  figures
• Can be cosmogonic
• Can be used to instruct children

• Here and now
• Actors human, though removed (FOF)
• No norms created rather norms upheld
• Too scary for the young, though they tell each
  other

5
Legends their structure

• Purported to be true FOF
• Validation (as opposed to 3X9 kingdoms)
• Implied interdiction
• Interdiction violated
• Consequences of violation, rather than
  resolution, though resolution in that social
  norms are upheld
• Repeat validation visual evidence

6
American historical legends

• George Washington and the cherry tree, silver
  dollar
• Custers last stand
• Mutilation
• Old woman
• Parallels in myth archetypical sources?

• Parallels in other traditions
• Robin Hood
• Koroglu (Turkish)
• Old woman time
• Russian story
• Other Russian stories of hubris skull, coffin

7
Other ancient legend topics

• Mutilation of the body, creation from body and
  strange birth
• Mythic Greek
• Devil baby
• Jersey Pine Barrens devil
• Strange births used in movies, TV

• Big foot beliefs
• Other place beliefs
• 29 North accident zone
• Candyman historical elements
• Other, more local legends illicit sex

8
More Russian historical legends

• Famous brigands Robin Hood type
• Stenka Razin
• His death
• His treasure
• Pugachev can unmask evildoers

• Place legends
• Icon
• Old Believers
• Famous rulers
• Ivan the Terrible
• And witches
• And the Volga River

9
Modern legends, modern issues

• Child abuse concerns and pet stories told last
  time
• Dealing with old people
• Runaway Grandma
• Old pet stories

• Dead pets and greed
• Greed and revenge
• Lots of sex
• Strange sex punished
• Female vanity also punished