Publisher's Synopsis
Recent scholarly interest in legends has shifted away from such story types as saints and hero legends, aetiological, placename and local stories to a genre of narrative that has less obvious roots in traditional themes and preoccupations. The contents of these legends-macabre happenings, accidents with household machinery, encounters with off-duty royalty, dreadful contaminations of foodstuffs, environment or bodily organs, theft, violence, threat, sexual embarrassments-seem to be novel in legendry. The setting of the time in the recent past and the reliance of the story logic on modern lifestyles seems further to separate these new forms from traditional legends. Hence we have come to call them 'contemporary legends'. Whilst interest in all aspects of the genre has grown steadily over the past ten years, there has until now been little opportunity for scholars to gather together and discuss their various approaches. However, since the summer of 1982, the Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language in Sheffield has hosted an annual seminar for international scholars interested in contemporary legend. The purpose of these meetings has been to provide a forum for current research and an opportunity to exchange ideas. This collection of papers presented at the 1983 and 1984 seminars represents individual perspectives on the nature, form and function of contemporary legend, focusing in particular on four areas: -aspects of collection, transcription and analysis -varieties of legend -the psychology of legend -legends and related forms
