East Tennessee State University Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University Electronic Theses and Dissertations Student Works 5-2006 Laughing in the Shadow: The Role of Humor in Ghost Story Telling. Melissa Ann Bentley-Edwards East Tennessee State University Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd Part of the Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons Recommended Citation Bentley-Edwards, Melissa Ann, "Laughing in the Shadow: The Role of Humor in Ghost Story Telling." (2006). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2201. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/2201 This Thesis - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Works at Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Laughing in the Shadow: The Role of Humor in Ghost Story Telling A thesis presented to the faculty of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction East Tennessee State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Reading and Storytelling Concentration by Melissa A. Bentley-Edwards May 2006 Joseph Sobol, Ph. D., Chair Delanna Reed, M. Ed. Edward Dwyer, Ph. D. Keywords: Storytelling, ghost stories, humor, shadow ABSTRACT Laughing in the Shadow: The Role of Humor in Ghost Story Telling by Melissa A. Bentley-Edwards The ghost story concert is a popular modern form of presenting ghost stories to ticket buying audiences and is one of the last stomping grounds of the oral tradition. Attendees come to be scared but not terrified. Tellers employ humor to release tension during the tale. When does humor release tension while maintaining the momentum of the story? When does the humor employed deflate it into a comical tale and diffuse suspense altogether? In an effort to answer these questions, four variants of a single story, Tailypo, were analyzed for the presence of tension and humor inducing stimuli employing Rothbart’s diagram of Schematic Representation of Affective Response to Sudden, Intense, or Discrepant Stimulation. Rothbart’s model has previously been applied to affective response to horror film; here it has been applied to oral storytelling. 2 COPYRIGHT ©2006 Melissa A. Bentley-Edwards All rights reserved. 3 DEDICATION I owe the success of this work to many people, especially to Brandon, who put our mutual goals on hold for two years while my education reigned supreme. Thank you to all who have supported me in my endeavor to complete this project, both for my own knowledge and the ever-growing studies of storytelling. A special thanks to my thesis committee and to NSN grant committee who allowed me to complete this work, Dr. Mary K Rothbart for permission to use her schematic diagram, Rounder Records for permission to use Jackie Torrence’s recording, the storytellers who permitted me to use their recordings and analyze their art, particularly David Holt, Marilyn Kinsella and Jim May, to Peggy Helmick-Richardson, Mel Davenport, Al Irvine and Mary Hamilton for assistance with details at the 11th hour, gratitude to Jackie Torrence and Chuck Larkin for their ever-living contributions to the oral storytelling craft, and to the tellers who have helped me with my own along the way. 4 CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ 2 DEDICATION....................................................................................................................... 4 LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 9 Problem Statement..................................................................................................... 10 Significance................................................................................................................ 11 Methods...................................................................................................................... 16 Procedure ................................................................................................................... 17 Application of Study.................................................................................................. 19 Limitations ................................................................................................................. 19 Review of Literature.................................................................................................. 23 Ghost stories......................................................................................................... 24 Shadow Tales....................................................................................................... 26 Modern American Collective Shadow: Terror .................................................... 29 Methods of Addressing Collective Shadow......................................................... 30 Fear Appeal Theories........................................................................................... 32 Theories of Humor............................................................................................... 35 Psychology of Humor.......................................................................................... 36 5 2. FOUNDATIONS OF FEAR AND HUMOR IN GHOST STORY TELLING ................ 40 Flaws in Fear Appeal Theory .................................................................................... 41 Fear as Life Tool........................................................................................................ 42 Lessons from the Appeal of Film............................................................................... 44 Present Manifestations and Future of Genre.............................................................. 46 Creation of Suspense.................................................................................................. 48 Ghost Tales and the Humor Within ........................................................................... 50 3. METHODS AND ANALYSIS ......................................................................................... 53 Phase One and Two: Content Analysis of Variants................................................... 54 Holt’s Variant....................................................................................................... 55 Torrence’s Variant............................................................................................... 64 Kinsella’s Variant ................................................................................................ 67 May’s Variant...................................................................................................... 73 Phase Three: Observations of Listening Session and Audio Analysis ...................... 77 Discussion.................................................................................................................. 78 5. FUTURE STUDY.......................................................................................................... 82 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................... 84 APPENDICES ....................................................................................................................... 92 Appendix A: A Sampling of Ghost Stories from the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN ................................................................................... 92 Appendix B: Script for Story Listening Study .......................................................... 96 Research Data...................................................................................................... 100 Story Listening Results........................................................................................ 102 6 Ratings ................................................................................................................. 104 Appendix C: Transcript of Tailybone by David Holt ............................................... 107 Appendix D: Transcript of Tailypo by Jackie Torrence ............................................ 113 Appendix E: Transcript of Tailypo by Marilyn Kinsella........................................... 120 Appendix F: Transcript of Tailypo by Jim May ........................................................ 127 Appendix G: Transcript of Tailypo by Jackie Torrence: Online Video Performance 134 Appendix H: Transcript of Tail Een Po by Chuck Larkin......................................... 137 VITA ........................................................................................................................ 143 7 LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Schematic Representation of Affective Response to Sudden, Intense, or Discrepant Stimulation1 ............................................................. 13 2. Schematic Representation of Response to Sudden Crash and Burst of Light2 .......... 15 3. Affective Response Measurement ............................................................................. 101 4. Affective Response Measurement on Look-Back Response Form ........................... 102 1 From “Incongruity, problem solving, and