Jan Harold Brunvand

In the textbook, the study of American folklore by Jan Harold Brunvand, it gives the definition of a myth as “traditional pose narratives, which in the society in which they are told, are considered to be truthful accounts of what happened in the remote past” (Brunvand 170). Anthropologist William Bascom expressed that myths are similar to legends in the way they are told, described, and the main characters that they contain. However, myths vary from legends because they are revered and they take

The Impact of Urban Legends Throughout History and Around the World Urban legends have always intrigued me. I am unsure if it is the scare factor that intrigues me, the way in which some of them are told, or some of the lessons that are supposed to be taken from them but one thing I know for sure is that I do not stand alone in this belief. In fact urban legends are told all over the world, even in countries that many have never heard of before. Many people of all backgrounds find them to

Joel Beckwith Febuary 13, 2001 Urban Legends In this paper I will explain exactly what an urban legend is,and give some examples of very popular ones that have been passed by word of mouth for decades across the United States. 1 " An urban legend is a story that is so bizarre,horrifying,or unexplainable, that it makes something inside of us want to believe it." Urban Legends can have traced origins from other countries, universities, states, or people,that just decided to made

since it is responsible for revealing the morals, beliefs and fears of the group of people or culture the story circulates within. The elements and storylines observed helps to give insight of the history and subconscious of the people. Dr. Jan Harold Brunvand was one of the first people to study urban legends and was the one who coined the term “urban legend”. Before when they didn’t have very great significance and were referred to as mentioned, friend-of-a-friend stories or urban belief tales.

ballad that was written by Neil Young in protest of the Kent State shootings, where on May 4th 1970, where the Ohio National Guard fired on unarmed students protesting the Vietnam War, killing four students and wounding nine others. Author Jan Harold Brunvand describes a ballad as a narrative folksong or “a folksong that tells a story”. This song would be an example of Emergence Folklore. According to Martha C. Simms of the book Living Folklore, “In many groups, folklore emerges in a response to

Bigfoot For over a 150 years man has been troubled by one great mystery, a mystery that has baffled all who have witnessed it and all who have tried to solve it. This mystery is commonly known as Bigfoot, a tall hairy man/ape who lurks in the woods in almost every country on this planet. Some say it is just an ape, some believe it is a man in costume, and others are true believers of this hairy phenomenon. For more than a decade and a half this creature of myth has caused enormous contradictions

com) Urban legends and their history can be a very interesting thing to devote your time to. The library has many good books on urban legends, one of the best is "Too Good to be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends" by Jan Harold

The Crucible Essay Assignment For your essay on The Crucible, please write a five paragraph, analytical essay in which you respond to one of the following prompts. 1. Although The Crucible revolves around the Salem Witch Trials, it allows readers to examine many themes. Choose a theme from The Crucible and discuss how it is developed throughout the play. How does this theme reveal the play’s deeper meaning? 2. The Crucible is a play of conflicts. Analyze a major conflict from The Crucible

The Backseat Murderer A good urban legend is like a good movie. It unfolds perfectly and it appeals to the audience’s hopes, fears, and anxieties. The urban legend I am about to describe was told by a first year female biology major at the University. She is of Indian descent and both her parents work in the biotechnology field. I collected this story on a Sunday night in the dorm. The fact that it was nighttime helped create the proper mood for the story. It was told in a dimly lit dorm room

to dry off her damp poodle by placing it in the microwave oven. The dog exploded, sad to say the least , and Grandma has never been quite the same since. The story is not true; it is an urban legend, circulating by word of mouth since the 1970s (Brunvand, 108). Urban legends are popular stories alleged to be true and transmitted from person to person by oral or written communication. Legends tend to arise spontaneously and are rarely traceable to a single point of origin. They spread primarily from