Diagnosing Folklore

How the collision of folk understandings with medical definitions affect disability and stigma
Contributions by Sheila Bock, London Brickley, Olivia Caldeira, Diane E. Goldstein, Darcy Holtgrave, Kate Parker Horigan, Michael Owen Jones, Elaine J. Lawless, Amy Shuman, Annie Tucker, and Kristiana Willsey
Diagnosing Folklore provides an inclusive forum for an expansive conversation on the sensitive, raw, and powerful processes that shape and imbue meaning in the lives of individuals and communities beleaguered by medical stigmatization, conflicting public perceptions, and contextual constraints. This volume aims to showcase current ideas and debates, as well as promote the larger study of disability, health, and trauma within folkloristics, helping bridge the gaps between the folklore discipline and disability studies.
This book consists of three sections, each dedicated to key issues in disability, health, and trauma. It explores the confluence of disability, ethnography, and the stigmatized vernacular through communicative competence, esoteric and exoteric groups in the Special Olympics, and the role of family in stigmatized communities. Then, it considers knowledge, belief, and treatment in regional and ethnic communities with case studies from the Latino/a community in Los Angeles, Javanese Indonesia, and Middle America. Lastly, the volume looks to the performance of mental illness, stigma, and trauma through contemporary legends about mental illness, vlogs on bipolar disorder, medical fetishism, and veteran's stories.
Trevor J. Blank, Malone, New York, is assistant professor of communication at the State University of New York at Potsdam. He is the author of The Last Laugh: Folk Humor, Celebrity Culture, and Mass-Mediated Disasters in the Digital Age and coauthor of Maryland Legends: Folklore from the Old Line State. Andrea Kitta, Greenville, North Carolina, is associate professor at East Carolina University. She is the author of Vaccinations and Public Concern in History: Legend, Rumor, and Risk Perception.