Introduction

In this seminar we will examine how folklore moved to towns and cities and now to the Internet as digital communication encourages new forms of vernacular expression.

Seminar Questions

What factors have shaped the development of urban folklore in Europe?

Discuss

EITHER the blog of the Folk Horror Revival and Urban Wyrd NetworkLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window

OR one of the podcasts listed here

OR the Cork Folklore ProjectLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window.

Required Reading

Bell, Karl, The Legend of Spring-Heeled Jack: Victorian Urban Folklore and Popular CulturesLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window (London, 2012), Introduction.

Blank, Trevor J., 'Introduction: Pattern in the Virtual Folk Culture of Computer-Mediated Communication', in Trevor J. Blank, ed., Folk Culture in the Digital Age: The Emergent Dynamics of Human InteractionLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window (Logan, UT, 2012), pp. 1-24.

Further Reading

Barnes, Daniel R., 'Interpreting Urban Legends', in Gillian Bennett and Paul Smith, eds, Contemporary Legend: A Reader (New York, 1996), 1-16.

Bell, Karl, The Legend of Spring-Heeled Jack: Victorian Urban Folklore and Popular Cultures (London, 2012)

Bell, Karl, The Magical Imagination: Magic and Modernity in Urban England, 1780-1914 (Cambridge, 2012)

Bendix, Regina F., and Galit Hasan-Rokem, eds, A Companion to Folklore (Malden, MA, 2012)

Blank, Trevor J., ed., Folk Culture in the Digital Age: The Emergent Dynamics of Human Interaction (Logan, UT, 2012)

Blank, Trevor J., ed., Folklore and the Internet: Vernacular Expression in a Digital World (Logan, UT, 2009)

Bronner, Simon J., Folklore: The Basics (London, 2017)

Ellis, Bill, '"Fake News" in the Contemporary Legend Dynamic', Journal of American Folklore 131 (2018), 398-404, 509.

Gelbin, Cathy S., 'The Golem: From Enlightenment Monster to Artificial Intelligence', Bulletin of the German Historical Institute, N0. 69 (2021/2022), pp. 79-94Link opens in a new window

Hing, Richard, et al., eds, Folk Horror Revival: Urban Wyrd 2: Spirits of Place (Durham, 2019)

Kalmre, Eda, The Human Sausage Factory: A Study of Post-War Rumour in TartuLink opens in a new window, trans. Kait Tamm and Alexander Harding (Amsterdam, 2013)

McNeill, Lynne S., Teaching Guide to Trevor J. Blank, ed.,Folklore and the Internet: Vernacular Expression in a Digital WorldLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window (Logan, UT, 2010)

Ó Giolláin, Diarmuid, Locating Irish Folklore: Tradition, Modernity, Identity (Cork, 2000)

Paciorek, Andy, et al., eds, Folk Horror Revival: Field Studies, 2nd ed. (Durham, 2018)

Peck, Andrew, and Trevor J Blank, eds, Folklore and Social Media (Logan, UT, 2021)

Rees, Gareth E., Unofficial Britain: Journeys through Unexpected Places (London, 2020)

Roud, Steve, The Lore of the Playground: One Hundred Years of Children's Games, Rhymes and Traditions (London, 2010)

Scovell, Adam, Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful and Things Strange (Leighton Buzzard, 2017)

Westwood, Jacqueline, and Jacqueline Simpson, eds, Haunted England: The Penguin Book of Ghosts (Harmondsworth, 2008)

Westwood, Jennifer, and Jacqueline Simpson, The Lore of the Land: A Guide to England's Legends, from Spring-Heeled Jack to the Witches of Warboys (Harmondsworth, 2005)

Westwood, Jennifer, and Sophia Kingshill, The Lore of Scotland: A Guide to Scottish Legends (London, 2009)

Electronic Resources

See here.