North American Monsters: A Contemporary Legend Casebook

✍ Scribed by David J. Puglia

• Publisher: University Press of Colorado
• Year: 2022
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 381
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Mining a mountain of folklore publications, North American Monsters unearths decades of notable monster research. Nineteen folkloristic case studies from the last half-century examine legendary monsters in their native habitats, focusing on ostensibly living creatures bound to specific geographic locales. A diverse cast of scholars contemplate these alluring creatures, feared and beloved by the communities that host them—the Jersey Devil gliding over the Pine Barrens, Lieby wriggling through Lake Lieberman, Char-Man stalking the Ojai Valley, and many, many more. Embracing local stories, beliefs, and traditions while neither promoting nor debunking, North American Monsters aspires to revive scholarly interest in local legendary monsters and creatures and to encourage folkloristic monster legend sleuthing.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
Foreword | Elizabeth Tucker
Preface
Acknowledgments
Are There Monsters?
Introduction: Legendary North American Monsters | David J. Puglia
1. The Boondock Monster of Camp Wapehani | James P. Leary, Indiana Folklore (1973)
2. The Cropsey Maniac | Lee Haring and Mark Breslerman, New York Folklore (1977)
3. Alligators-in-the-Sewers: A Journalistic Origin | Loren Coleman, Journal of American Folklore (1979)
4. Sasquatch-Like Creatures in Newfoundland: A Study in the Problems of Belief, Perception, and Reportage | Michael Taft, In Manlike Monsters on Trial: Early Records and Modern Evidence (1980)
5. The “Char-Man”: A Local Legend of the Ojai Valley | Charlie Seemann, Western Folklore (1981)
6. The Jersey Devil | Angus Kress Gillespie, Journal of Regional Cultures (1985)
7. American Vampires: Legend, the Media, and Tubal Transmission | Norine Dresser, Excerpted from American Vampires: Fans, Victims, Practitioners (1989)
8. The Ways and Nature of the Zombi | Hans-W. Ackermann and Jeanine Gauthier, Journal of American Folklore (1991)
9. Ecotypes, Etiology, and Contemporary Legend: The “Webber” Cycle in Western Newfoundland | John Ashton, Contemporary Legend (2001)
10. The Lake Lieberman Monster | Elizabeth Tucker, Midwestern Folklore (2004)
11. A Nessie in Mormon Country: The Bear Lake Monster | Alan L. Morrell, In Between Pulpit and Pew: The Supernatural World in Mormon History and Folklore (2011)
12. Getting Maryland’s Goat: Diffusion and Canonization of Prince George’s County’s Goatman Legend | David J. Puglia, Contemporary Legend (2013)
13. Tall, Dark, and Loathsome: The Slender Man and the Emergence of a Legend Cycle in the Digital Age | Andrew Peck, Journal of American Folklore (2015)
14. Evoking the Shadow Beast: Disability and Chicano Advocacy in San Antonio’s Donkey Lady Legend | Mercedes Elaina Torrez | Contemporary Legend (2016)
15. Going Van Helsing in Puerto Rico: Hunting the Chupacabra Legend | Menjamin Radford
16. Daniel Boone, Yahoos, and Yeahohs: Mirroring Monsters of the Appalachians | Carl Lindahl
17. The Mothman of West Virginia: A Case Study in Legendary Storytelling | David Clarke
18. The Windigo as Monster: Indigenous Belief, Cultural Appropriation, and Popular Horror | Gail De Vos
19. Monsters, Legends, and Festivals: Sharlie, Winter Carnival, and Other Isomorphic Relationships | Lisa Gabbert
Discussion Questions and Projects
Glossary of Key Terms
Recommended Reading List
Permissions
Index
About the Editor
About the Authors