Urban tale6/1/2023 Unlike traditional folk tales, which are generally associated with rural preliterate societies or with stories told by the very old to the very young, urban legends are shared and believed by people of all ages, classes, professions, and education levels. Prevalent themes in urban legends include technology, business and industry, crime, medicine and disease, fast food or contaminated food, disasters, doppelgängers or mistaken identities, and celebrities, as well as traditional themes of death, sex, and money. Folklorists distinguish between urban legends and rumours, gossip, misinformation, hoaxes, and conspiracy theories, most of which lack the urban legend’s telltale narrative structure. Urban legends are also typified by short neat plots that involve a series of odd events or unlikely coincidences followed by a twist ending. For example, after the devastating tsunami of 2004, tuk-tuk drivers in Thailand began to share a common “wandering dead” story of picking up a fare (usually a Western tourist and his Thai girlfriend) urgently headed to the airport, only to find that the passengers had vanished upon arrival at their destination. More recent accounts of the vanishing hitchhiker often occur in subways or airports or incorporate recent events. Over time the legend may adapt or modernize further. For instance, Chicago’s legend of “ Resurrection Mary” is named after a ghost said to appear to drivers on a road past Resurrection Cemetery in the city’s southwest suburbs. As with other urban legends, the vanishing hitchhiker has many variants that differ based on local details. The story of the vanishing hitchhiker typifies an urban legend in both its being widely shared through oral telling and its contemporary elements, such as the modern form of transport. The latter suddenly vanishes and is subsequently discovered to have been a ghost. The title of the collection refers to one of the most well-known urban legends, that of a person traveling in a vehicle, usually a car, who meets a mysterious hitchhiker. The phrase was popularized in 1981 with the publication of The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings, a book by American folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand. The term urban legend began appearing in folklore studies in the mid-20th century, and it was used to describe the genre of modern “too good to be true” stories shared through oral accounts. Thus, they hold as important a place in the study and collection of folklore as older traditional tales. Although many urban legends are told for their shock value or humour, folklorists believe that urban legends reflect the anxieties and beliefs in modern society, such as fears related to technology or crime. They occur in cultures worldwide, featuring common plots and themes with minor differences reflecting local knowledge and cultural mores. Similar to older traditional folk tales and legends, urban legends spread through word of mouth but are increasingly shared through print, digital, and social media. Urban legends typically combine secondhand narratives, such as those heard from “a friend of a friend,” with contemporary settings and familiar everyday objects, such as shopping malls or automobiles. Urban legend, also called urban myth, contemporary legend, or modern legend, in folklore, a story about an unusual or humorous event that many people believe to be true but that is not true. SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century. 100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.COVID-19 Portal While this global health crisis continues to evolve, it can be useful to look to past pandemics to better understand how to respond today.Student Portal Britannica is the ultimate student resource for key school subjects like history, government, literature, and more.This Time in History In these videos, find out what happened this month (or any month!) in history.#WTFact Videos In #WTFact Britannica shares some of the most bizarre facts we can find.Demystified Videos In Demystified, Britannica has all the answers to your burning questions.Britannica Classics Check out these retro videos from Encyclopedia Britannica’s archives.Britannica Explains In these videos, Britannica explains a variety of topics and answers frequently asked questions.
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