Linda Dégh – författare

Discusses old crafts and folk skills, from covered bridge building to quiltmaking, as well as the legends and lore of Indiana.

"This book shows how folklore—magic, miracles, and tales of enchanted princesses and genial giants—is still alive and well in the modern mass media. . . . contains a wealth of facts and observations with which to conjure." —Journal of Communication"Dégh brings her decades of expertise in folk narrative to bear in this well-researched, provocative study of the interrelationship between traditional processes of folk narrative performances and modern mass media. . . . Highly recommended . . . " —Choice"Spanning folk cultural developments as old as feudalism and as new as today's TV ad, American Folklore and the Mass Media demonstrates how vital folklore remains, how often it absorbs—rather than being absorbed by—the most dramatic technological innovations and social realignments." —Carl Lindahl". . . all six essays are meaty and informative contributions to vital folkloric issues . . ." —Contemporary Legend

Legend and BeliefDialectics of a Folklore GenreLinda DéghAn acclaimed folklorist asks "What is legend?"Legend and Belief is a descriptive and analytical study of the legend, the most prolific and characteristic form of folklore in contemporary Western civilization. Not that the legend does not have ancient roots; like the tale, the joke, the ballad, the proverb, and mummery, it was also a part of an archaic preindustrial tradition. But the legend—as old as conversation and debate, and similarly questioning the human condition—was able to survive technological innovations. It has remained contemporaneous, whereas many other genres succumbed to their own anachronism. The legend's concerns are universal and eternal, touching on the most sensitive areas of our existence. That is why stories about supernatural encounters, possessions, divine and infernal miracles, evil spirits, monsters, and prophetic dreams, as well as horror stories about insane and criminal agencies, inundate the urban/industrial world. Industrial advancement does not change the basic fragility of human life, while commercialization and the consumer orientation of the mass media have helped legends travel faster and farther. Legends are not only communicated orally, face-to-face, but also appear in the press, on radio and TV, on countless internet websites, and by e-mail to keep alive new waves of the "culture of fear."Linda Dégh, Distinguished Professor Emerita of Folklore at Indiana University, is a folklorist/ethnologist whose speciality is the analysis of personally observed creative processes of narration in both traditional and modern communities of Europe and North America. Her numerous publications include Four Lives: People in the Tobacco Belt; Folktales and Society; American Folklore and the Mass Media; and Narratives in Society.June 2001496 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4, index, append.cloth0-253-33929-4$49.95 s / £38.00

First published in 1996. There has been no more important relationship between folk artist and folklorist than that between Zsuzsanna Palkó and Linda Dégh. Dégh’s painstaking collection of Mrs. Palkó’s tales attracted the admiration of the Hungarian-speaking world. In 1954 Mrs. Palkó was named Master of Folklore by the Hungarian government and summoned to Budapest to receive ceremonial recognition. The unlettered 74-year-old woman from Kakasd had become “Aunt Zsuzsi” to Linda Dégh—and was about to become one of the world’s best known storytellers, through Dégh’s work.

First published in 1996. There has been no more important relationship between folk artist and folklorist than that between Zsuzsanna Palkó and Linda Dégh. Dégh’s painstaking collection of Mrs. Palkó’s tales attracted the admiration of the Hungarian-speaking world. In 1954 Mrs. Palkó was named Master of Folklore by the Hungarian government and summoned to Budapest to receive ceremonial recognition. The unlettered 74-year-old woman from Kakasd had become “Aunt Zsuzsi” to Linda Dégh—and was about to become one of the world’s best known storytellers, through Dégh’s work.