Bodies: Sex, Violence, Disease, and Death in Contemporary Legend.
Publication:
Marvels & Tales
Publication Date: 01-APR-08 |
Format: Online
Delivery: Immediate Online Access |
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Full Article Title: Bodies: Sex, Violence, Disease, and Death in Contemporary Legend.(Book review) |
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Article Excerpt
Bodies: Sex, Violence, Disease, and Death in Contemporary Legend. By Gillian Bennett. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2005. xv + 313 pp., index.
Gillian Bennett begins her remarkable book with the following identification: "I am a folklorist by profession and inclination" (ix), and throughout her work she conveys her extraordinary commitment to the scholarly place and humanist import of contemporary legends. In both the introduction and the conclusion, she emphatically declares that folklore and contemporary legends are not "trivial stories." In the six chapters that comprise Bodies, Bennett's careful readings of contemporary legends reveal the prominence, astonishing adaptability, and staying power that legends--particularly those that feature sex and death, whether violent or through disease--have had across both time and cultures, These chapters address such varied topics as "bosom serpents," poisoned garments, AIDS transmission, the murder of the prodigal son, organ theft, and anti-Semitic and blood libel legends to name just a few.
Beginning with a...
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