Bodies
Subtitle: Sex, Violence, Disease, And Death In Contemporary Legend
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Published: October 2005
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 313
ISBN-13: 9781578067893
Subjects: Social Science; Legends; Sociology; Folklore & Mythology; Media Studies; Popular Culture - General; Body, Human; Folklore
First sentence: In this chapter I shall be looking at the complex of old medical beliefs, religious and secular prodigy stories, and sensational stories of today that is generally referred to as the legend of the "Bosom Serpent."
Description: "Because they are so often told as news, contemporary legends force us to reevaluate life as we know it. They confront us with macabre, fantastic, horrific, or hilarious characters and events that seem to come straight out of myths and folktales but are repeated as present day facts. It is not at all easy to decide whether these often disturbing stories should be treated as reliable or dismissed as fantasy." "In this book Gillian Bennett traces the cultural history of six legends, well-known in Europe and America from medieval times to the present day. Appearing in broadsides, ballads, myths, ancient and modern legends, novels, plays, films, television shows, and stories told in the oral tradition, these legends are not just silly tales which can be dismissed as trivial and untrue. They reveal much about the concerns and fears of everyday life and demonstrate the limits of knowledge and power in the modern world."--Jacket.