Alas, Poor Ghost!: Traditions of Belief in Story and Discourse
Bennett interviewed women in Manchester, England, asking them about ghosts and other supernatural experiences and beliefs. (Her discussion of how her research methods and interview techniques evolved is in itself valuable.) She first published the results of the study in the well-received Traditions of Belief: Women and the Supernatural, which has been used internationally in folklore, women's studies, and other courses. "Alas, Poor Ghost!" thoroughly revises and expands that work. In...
Search in google:
Bennett interviewed women in Manchester, England, asking them about ghosts and other supernatural experiences and beliefs. (Her discussion of how her research methods and interview techniques evolved is in itself valuable.) She first published the results of the study in the well-received Traditions of Belief: Women and the Supernatural, which has been used internationally in folklore, women's studies, and other courses. "Alas, Poor Ghost!" thoroughly revises and expands that work. In addition to a fuller presentation and analysis of the original field research, the author has updated the text to incorporate more recent studies and assisted by Kate Bennett, a gerontological psychologist, analyzed new research with a group of women in Leicester, England. This last addition focuses on the role of bereavement and witnessing in contact with the dead.
Introduction1Ch. 1Belief and Disbelief9Ch. 2Contact with the Dead39Ch. 3Witnesses, Bereavement, and the Sense of Presence77Ch. 4From Private Experience to Public Performance115Ch. 5"Alas, Poor Ghost!"139App. 1Collecting the Data173The Manchester Study173The Leicester Study178App. 2Transcribing Spoken Texts183App. 3The Manchester Respondents189App. 4Linguistic Clues to Belief and Disbelief193App. 5Word Lists Showing Story Patterns in Memorates195Notes199References Cited207Index221
