Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002
Includes bibliographical references (pages 234-249), filmography (pages 250-252) and index
Introduction - Old spirits in new bottles -- - Part I. - Taking ghosts seriously : The usefulness of ghost stories -- - Scientific rationalism and supernatural experience narratives -- - Part II. - Narrating socialization and gender : Gender and ghosts -- - Children's ghost stories -- - Part III. - Old spirits in new contexts : Haunted houses -- - The commodification of belief -- - Conclusion : The "spectral turn."
"Ghosts and the supernatural appear throughout modern culture, in any number of entertainment, commercial, and other contexts. Popular media's commodified representations of ghosts can be quite different from what people believe about them, based on tradition or direct experience. Belief and tradition and the popular or commercial nevertheless continually feed off each other. They frequently share space in how people think about the supernatural. In Haunting Experiences, three well-known folklorists broaden the discussion of ghost lore by examining it from multiple angles in various modern contexts. Diane E. Goldstein, Sylvia Ann Grider, and Jeannie Banks Thomas take ghosts seriously. They draw on contemporary scholarship that emphasizes the basis of belief in experience and the usefulness of ghost stories. And they look closely at the narrative role of such lore in matters such as socialization and gender. Together, they unravel the complex mix of mass media, commodification, and popular culture that today puts old spirits into new contexts."--Publisher's description
