Books in the New Perspectives in Folklore series

First published in 1996. The need to write, particularly in pre-technological recording days, in order to preserve and to analyze, lies at the heart of folklore and yet to write means to change the medium in which much folk communication and art actually took and takes place. In Part I of the collection, the contributors address literary constructions of traditional and emergent cultures, those of Leslie Marmon Silko, Sandra Cisneros, Pat Mora, Carmen Tafolla, Julio Cortázar, Milan Kundera, Franz Kafka, Philip Roth, Thomas Hardy, and Dacia Maraini. The contributors to Part II of the collection offer readings of a variety of traditional, vernacular, and local performances.

First Published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

From the vanishing hitchhiker to the hook-handed killer, from the vaginal serpent to Elvis Alive!, and from the "McWorm" burger to the mouse in the cola can, 23 essays examine this genre, and its effect on society. Explores interpretation, reactions, folklore and film, the social construction of ur