Manufacturing tales : sex and money in contemporary legends / Gary Alan Fine.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fine, Gary Alan, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sex--Folklore.

Sex.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (212 pages)

Other Title:

Manufacturing tales

Place of Publication:

Knoxville : University of Tennessee Press, 2018.

Summary:

"The mouse in the Coke bottle, the promiscuous cheerleader, the exploding Pop Rocks candy, the Kentucky Fried Rat. If the ballad and the fairy tale were the archetypal folklore forms of an earlier age, such contemporary legends constitute the preferred narrative genre of the late twentieth century. In Manufacturing Tales, award-winning folklorist Gary Alan Fine presents a major new theory of the creation and diffusion of contemporary legends in modern society." "While ballad and fairy tale arose in folk communities and spread through trade and migration, contemporary legends thrive in societies crosscut by varied communication channels and relatively open networks. By looking at the social-structural background, the performance context, the personality of the teller, and the content of the text, we gain insight into the formation, dissemination, and disappearance of these modern legends." "Fine identifies sex and money as key themes in contemporary legends, reflecting the public's disguised attempts to deal with major contemporary preoccupations. From the AIDS crisis to fears of food contamination in restaurants, popular anxieties are reflected in folklore. As dramatic, moving, comic, and involving texts, contemporary legends build relationships among acquaintances and strangers; as depictions of the world that we face every day, they provide perspective on potential challenges; and as shared information, they elaborate a consensual understanding of reality."--BOOK JACKET.

Contents:

Introduction: Toward a Framework for Contemporary Legends

I. Sexual Fantasies. I. Evaluating Psychoanalytic Folklore: Are Freudians Ever Right? 2. The Promiscuous Cheerleader: An Adolescent Male Legend / Gary Alan Fine and Bruce Noel Johnson. 3. Welcome to the World of AIDS: Fantasies of Female Revenge

II. Dangerous Products. 4. Cokelore and Coke Law: Urban Belief Tales and the Problem of Multiple Origins. 5. Folklore Diffusion Through Interactive Social Networks: Conduits in a Preadolescent Community. 6. The Kentucky Fried Rat: Legends and Modern Society

III. Dangerous Capitalism. 7. The Goliath Effect: Corporate Dominance and Mercantile Legends. 8. Mercantile Legends and the World Economy: Dangerous Imports from the Third World. 9. Among Those Dark Satanic Mills: Rumors of Kooks, Cults, and Corporations

IV. Corporate Redemption. 10. Redemption Rumors: Mercantile Legends and Corporate Beneficence. 11. Redemption Rumors and the Power of Ostension.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.