Studia Ethnologica Pragensia (Dec 2018)
Současné pověsti a fámy na Nymbursku
Abstract
Following study deals with contemporary legends and rumours that used to be (or still are being) spread among people in specific rural and smalltown areas of Nymburk district in Czechia. Examples of the most widespread legends and rumours in mentioned area are presented while all of them were collected during more than a two-year long field research. Text emphasizes how are these oral narratives being spread, by which segments of society and during which kind of social occasions. Main hypothesis connected with the fieldwork was that nowadays young people do not know as many narratives as older ones, so that middle-aged and even older people are those who are keeping such stories alive. Our next hypothesis was that the younger people are, on the other hand, more familiar with genres such as conspiracy theories and hoaxes. This would support our thought that contemporary folklore is being more and more popular in electronic sphere and the Internet. Last but not least, we wanted to prove that rural and smalltown areas can also produce their own specific folkloric tales which would not be probably able to survive at all in metropolitan areas and large cities.
