Alas, Poor Ghost! Traditions of Belief in Story and Discourse

Wein, Elizabeth; Bennett, Gillian

doi:10.2307/542072

Cited by 3 publications

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“…They have pointed out a dialectic of belief and disbelief inherent in these processes of knowledge production, which has also been widely discussed by folklorists who have focused on the supernatural (e.g. Bennett 1999;Dégh 2001; see also Koski 2016b).…”

Section: U N C a N N Y E X P E R I E N C E S A N D S E C U L A R I T ...mentioning

confidence: 94%

“That Must Have Been Uncanny!” Experiences of Invisible Others in Contemporary Finland

Andell

2023

Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics

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This article* examines experiences of invisible others considered uncanny in the context of secularity in contemporary Finland. Drawing from experience-centred theories of religion and spiritual belief by Ann Taves and David Hufford, the article analyses how uncanny experiences are differentiated from other kinds of experience and how they are justified as real in first-person narratives written by Finnish experiencers. The empirical analysis distinguishes four characterisations of experience the authors consider uncanny, which also serve to convince them of the realness of their experience. By conversating these findings with studies of experiences deemed religious or supernatural, the article seeks to reinforce dialogue with research on similar experiences that people rather consider in scientific and everyday terms. The article then suggests a framework for cross-secular enquiry that would allow scholars in different fields to address differences in how secularity manifests in different locations. Such a methodological framework may create possibilities to juxtapose and compare similar kinds of experience that people may or may not consider supernatural in different secular societies.

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Section: U N C a N N Y E X P E R I E N C E S A N D S E C U L A R I T ...mentioning

confidence: 94%

“That Must Have Been Uncanny!” Experiences of Invisible Others in Contemporary Finland

Andell

2023

Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics

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“…The folkloristic study of legendary ghosts boasts a more prolific literature than legendary monsters. For a sampling of how folklorists approach ghosts, see Bennett 1999;Bronner 2012, 277-342;Browne 1976;Ellis 2003, 117-41;Goldstein, Grider, and Thomas 2007;Harris 2015;Hufford 1995;Iwasaka and Toelken 1994;Jones 1944;McNeil 1985;Montell 1975;Tucker 2007. In addition, metaphorical ghost spectrality literature (what Roger Lockhurst recognizes as meta-gothic haunted modernity literature) mingles with literal ghosts and invokes haunting metaphors but fails to investigate folklorists' core concerns.…”

Section: Legendary Monsters: Yesterday and Tomorrowmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Mothman of West Virginia: A Case Study in Legendary Storytelling

Clarke¹

2022

North American Monsters: A Contemporary Legend Casebook

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“…On today's perception of ghosts in vernacular culture see, for example,Bennett (1999) andThomas (2015). For more, see, for example,Cowdell (2014).…”

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confidence: 99%

Prague ghostlore of the late 19th century. Suburban ghosts between moral panic and vernacular spectacle

Janeček

2023

ELOP

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In the mid-1870s, a wave of popular urban hauntings in public spaces swept across Europe. These included sightings of the Park Ghost in Sheffield in 1873 and the Westminster Christ Church Ghost in London in 1874. In early December 1874, probably the most famous Czech ghost, the Podskalí Apparition (Podskalské strašidlo), was born. This haunting was followed by that of similar but less popular ghosts that appeared in industrial, working-class Prague neighborhoods in 1876 and 1907, respectively. This paper analyzes newspaper articles from this period about these apparitions and their later depictions in Czech popular culture, and interprets these phenomena as local variants of the so-called “prowling ghosts”, a particular type of suburban phantom documented by current historiographical research on 19th-century ghostlore in England. The paper then describes how these Prague ghosts were utilized socially by two completely different cultural practices. On one hand, these hauntings were used by working-class people as vernacular spectacles and improvised festivities related to pranks, the symbolic occupation of public space, and Czech nationalism. For the middle classes and period newspapers loyal to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, on the other hand, unruly mobs converging on the sites of supposed hauntings were a threat to established social norms and triggered both moral panics and public scorn of these “ghost hunters”. However, this attitude changed quickly when these events entered popular culture in the form of popular songs and, later, memoirs and literature. Between the Belle Époque at the First World War, these famous Prague hauntings were the staple for nostalgic longing in the last few decades of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

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Alas, Poor Ghost! Traditions of Belief in Story and Discourse

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

“That Must Have Been Uncanny!” Experiences of Invisible Others in Contemporary Finland

“That Must Have Been Uncanny!” Experiences of Invisible Others in Contemporary Finland

The Mothman of West Virginia: A Case Study in Legendary Storytelling

Prague ghostlore of the late 19th century. Suburban ghosts between moral panic and vernacular spectacle

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