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Accepted Paper:
Myth, folklore and Kitsch: the Case of the Black Dog of Bungay
David Waldron (University of Ballarat)
Paper short abstract:
The mythology of the Black Shuck has been a central identifying feature of community and cultural identity of the small Suffolk town of Bungay since the Victorian era. This paper traces the development of the mythology in relation to localised identity formation and regional ethnicity.
Paper long abstract:
The attack on St Mary's Church in Bungay on August 4 1577 has become a centre piece of community identity and regional East Anglian folklore. The mythology surrounding the attack of the ghost dog Black Shuck have become an integral part of the community's sense of English local identity in the face of the pressures posed by globalization, economic development and rapidly changing ethnic and generational demographics. The mythology has also attracted international attention from ghost hunters, crypto-zoologists, folklorists and novelists leading to an integration of indigenous folklore and globalised popular culture. This paper is based on archival research of the development of the local folklore surrounding Black Shuck in relation to majour social and demographic challenges. In particular, this paper will focus on the use of the Black Shuck folklore to create a sense of eternal transcendent English ethnicity tied to the landscape and the use of supernaturalism to legitimate a folkloric construction of ethnic identity.
Memory, identity and cultural change
Session 1