LAND AND LEGEND : THE ROLE OF PLACE IN THE FOLK NARRATIVE OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Moss, James Callaway.

Contributor:

University of Pennsylvania.

Subjects (All):

Folklore.

0358.

Local Subjects:

0358.

Physical Description:

422 pages

Contained In:

Dissertation Abstracts International 44-12A.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

text file

Summary:

Stories collected from Chester County, Pennsylvania provide the data for discussing the significant role of Place in folk narrative.

Tape-recorded interviews and written sources establish residents' images of Chester County and their sense of place.

Quaker anecdotes, local outlaw legends and ghost stories are represented in developing a theory of story-to-place relationship. Residents' images of Chester County and specific places, such as haunted spots, play an integral role in the generation, transmission, and maintenance of local stories. Images of the place, the actual place, the story, the narrator and the audience all interact creating a multi-dimensional process of story formation, transmission and maintenance.

Finally, the folkloric consequences of the changes in place and images of places is addressed. The prediction is that as specific places are destroyed or drastically lose their particular character, in this case due to suburbanization, then stories connected with those places will be discontinued and replaced by other forms of narrative not so place dependent. Pictures, maps, transcripts and graphs are provided.

Notes:

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-12, Section: A, page: 3768.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1983.

Local Notes:

School code: 0175.

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.