num_pages: 272
description: Ghosts and other supernatural phenomena are widely represented throughout modern culture. They can be found in any number of entertainment commercial and other contexts but popular media or commodified representations of ghosts can be quite different from the beliefs people hold about them based on tradition or direct experience. Personal belief and cultural tradition on the one hand and popular and commercial representation on the other nevertheless continually feed each other. They frequently share space in how people think about the supernatural. In Haunting Experiences three well-known folklorists seek to broaden the discussion of ghost lore by examining it from a variety of angles in various modern contexts. Diane E. Goldstein Sylvia Ann Grider and Jeannie Banks Thomas take ghosts seriously as they draw on contemporary scholarship that emphasizes both the basis of belief in experience (rather than mere fantasy) and the usefulness of ghost stories. They look closely at the narrative role of such lore in matters such as socialization and gender. And they unravel the complex mix of mass media commodification and popular culture that today puts old spirits into new contexts.
language: English
title: Haunting Experiences: Ghosts in Contemporary Folklore
publisher: Utah State University Press