Ghostlore

Originally authored as a general audience-oriented book proposal for the University of Georgia Press, this collection and analysis of ghostlore from the University of Georgia (UGA) and Athens, Georgia area consists of three distinct sections: first, a detailed analysis on the folklore of ghosts at Joseph E. Brown ("Joe Brown") Hall at UGA; second, a historical survey of the "Susie" entity at the Thomas-Carithers House ("The Wedding Cake House", home of the UGA chapter of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority); and third, a broad survey of ghostlore in the region from the late 19th century until today.

This chapter explores supernatural beliefs in the urban space of contempo- rary Beijing. It examines representations of traditional demonic characters and plots in modern urban culture, the ways in which they survive and adapt in new social and cultural contexts, forms of interaction between traditional and contemporary mass culture, and some specific features of Asian traditions of ghostlore and ghost storytelling. It also discusses demonology as a special realm of Chinese culture, and its main features and new functions in urban conditions, as well as various authorities which influence the content of the supernatural in the spaces of the capital.

The paper about the Indonesian “zombie” pocong examines specific features of the ghost stories in Indonesia, tracks the etymology of the words hantu (“ghost,” “undead”) and pocong (“wrapped in shroud”), and includes a translation of a typical ghost story (“Pocong and a Cart Hawker”). It introduces the hitherto understudied material in Russia that counts only a small number of Indonesian and Anglophone works. The aims of this paper include collecting data about this mythological creature
from Indonesian sources, studying the image of pocong and contemporary narratives about him, searching his closest parallels in the world folklore, and interpreting the meanings of the character discovered in modern Indonesian culture. For religious people, pocong is a symbol of the frailty of life. Some traditional Muslims in modern Indonesia practice pocong related rituals (“Pocong’s oath,” pesugihan). Nowadays, the image of pocong is demythologized as it circulates in urban flesh-mobs, pranks, and horror films. The typology of this scary image is surprisingly similar not to Muslim
genies but to from Chinese hopping vampires. Modern zombie studies shed light on the genealogy of pocong as a walking dead. Todd K. Platts discusses the spectrum of potential underpinnings of the zombie that include racism, terrorism, class inequality, disintegration of a nuclear family, consumer culture etc that may be applied to pocong as well. Pocong symbolizes oppressed common folk and this image is frequently used in
mass political protests. Interpretation of pocong as a marginalized figure is relevant for the folklore studies in Indonesia, as well as for the study of horror-discourse in general