What do legend tellers do? How do beliefs pass from person to person? How does legend telling create and shape worldviews? Today's reading and guest speaker will offer some ideas on these questions that are fundamental to understanding humans.

Reading

Jennifer Attebery is a leader in the study of traditional log houses; immigrant and ethnic folklore; and legends. She will be a guest speaker in our class on Tuesday and Wednesday. Please read Chapter Five in her newest book (link below). You're also welcome and encouraged to explore other chapters in this book!

Questions for consideration. Attebery writes,
"Given the prevalence of conspiracy thinking that has supported lies about twenty-first century events, it seems especially important . . . to analyze legends rhetorically for the ways that their tellers seek to persuade readers of the truth of events and argue for particular interpretations of those events" (2023, 108).
- What legends, contemporary or historical, have you heard or read that seem to beg for rhetorical analysis?
- How does your understanding of rhetorical strategies (ethos, pathos, logos, kairos, and the rhetoric of embodiment) help you understand these legends in a new way?

Estimated time: ~30 minutes

Jennifer Attebery, Chapter 5, “Rhetoric: Community Claims about the Shared Past” in As legend has it: History, heritage, and the construction of Swedish American identity (2023), pages 107-127.

E-book at UW Libraries: [Link] or also available as a [PDF File]

Rationale: It is useful to think beyond texts, to the effect of a legend on listeners (or readers).

Lecture : In-person only

Here is a handout - legend texts for class discussion.

Bonus

Read the "Introduction" to Jennifer Attebery's newest book (chapter 5 is assigned above).
Jennifer Attebery is a leading specialist on traditional log architecture. You can read her PhD dissertation about log buildings in Idaho: [Link to book at UW Libraries]. (she also has books on the topic, available in print).
Jennifer Attebery is a leading specialist on ethnic traditions in the USA. One of her many other publications is this book,
Pole Raising and Speech Making: Modalities of Swedish American Summer Celebration. Utah State University Press, 2015. [Link to book at UW Libraries]