Natalie: “New Legends for Old” by Harold Brunvand

1. Identify and briefly define important words, terms, concepts, characters.

Folklore- the collection, classification, and interpretation of many products of human interaction in their full cultural context.
Oral folklore- not casual or formal discussions but communicative events that are memorable, repeatable and fit recurring social situations.
Tradition- a consistency that connects familiar names and phrases and turns it into folklore.
Urban legends- a subclass of folk narratives, unlike fairytales are believable, unlike myths are more recent, and humans are the main characters.

2. Summarize the main idea, theme, action, or event of the reading. Be sure to include quotation that best captures the overall feeling or mood of the reading.

“We must make the best of what we have (as this book attempts to do) and we must encourage the further study of urban legends in much more depth and with better social, cultural, and performance data.”

Brunvand uses “New Legends for Old” to explain the structure of folklore and the motivations behind their creation. He describes them as constantly changing each time they are retold, whether to suit the new audience or improve the storyline. It is as though legends are edited and revised by their teller each time they are shared. Sometimes they are told to evoke certain emotions from listeners, or even carry a moral. Since legends do have facts to make the fiction more real, he believes by studying myths, people can gain perspective on the past, society and the ideals upheld of that time.

3. Formulate a question for discussion. The question should be relatively substantial, based upon a specified passage or scene from the text, and capable of sustaining a thoughtful discussion.

In today’s fast-paced world with more communication taking place on the internet/AIM/phone/etc., will oral folklore become extinct and remembered as something of the past?