1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910143823903321

Autore

Goldstein Diane E

Titolo

Haunting experiences : ghosts in contemporary folklore / / Diane E. Goldstein, Sylvia Ann Grider, Jeannie Banks Thomas

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Logan, Utah : , : Utah State University Press, , 2007

©2007

ISBN

1-4571-7483-9

0-87421-681-8

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (ix, 270 pages) : illustrations

Altri autori (Persone)

ThomasJeannie B

GriderSylvia Ann

Disciplina

398/.47

398.47

Soggetti

Haunted places

Supernatural

Ghosts

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 234-249), filmography (p. 250-252) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; Acknowledgments; Illustrations; Introduction: Old Spirits in New Bottles; Part I: Taking Ghosts Seriously; One: The Usefulness of Ghost Stories; Two: Scientific Rationalism and Supernatural Experience Narratives; Part II: Narrating Socialization and Gender; Three: Gender and Ghosts; Four: Children's Ghost Stories; Part III: Old Spirits in New Contexts; Five: Haunted Houses; Six: The Commodification of Belief; Conclusion: The "Spectral Turn"; Notes; Bibliography; Filmography; Index

Sommario/riassunto

"Ghosts and the supernatural appear throughout modern culture, in any number of entertainment, commercial, and other contexts. Popular media's commodified representations of ghosts can be quite different from what people believe about them, based on tradition or direct experience. Belief and tradition and the popular or commercial nevertheless continually feed off each other. They frequently share space in how people think about the supernatural. In Haunting Experiences, three well-known folklorists broaden the discussion of



ghost lore by examining it from multiple angles in various modern contexts. Diane E. Goldstein, Sylvia Ann Grider, and Jeannie Banks Thomas take ghosts seriously. They draw on contemporary scholarship that emphasizes the basis of belief in experience and the usefulness of ghost stories. And they look closely at the narrative role of such lore in matters such as socialization and gender. Together, they unravel the complex mix of mass media, commodification, and popular culture that today puts old spirits into new contexts."--Publisher's description