Lengua y Expresión Escrita IV Paola Barros
I.S.F.D.N °30
Blas Bigatti
La dama de blanco: an appealing urban legend for adolescents What would men do if they went to a party, met a nice girl and had a wonderful night; but then, the next day they found out by her parents that she had died many years ago? “La dama de blanco” (The lady in white) is a popular urban legend about a beautiful white-dressed girl who assists alone to a party. A young boy meets her and falls in love with her instantly. They spend a wonderful and romantic night together, but as the night is ending up, he courteously drives her home. In order to protect her from the cold weather, he gently offers her his jacket and finally they arrive at her house. Since the crash they have experimented is so strong, the teenage couple decide to have a second date. The next day, the boy goes to her house and for his surprise her parents tell him she has died some years ago. The shocked boy decides to visit her grave and he feels overwhelmed when he sees his jacket lying in the grass next to her tomb. We do not know the origin of this urban story, but for several reasons it is part of the Argentine storytelling folklore and people‟s culture. This urban legend contains many elements which make it attractive to people in general but especially adolescents. Even though they were meant for people of all ages at its beginning, urban legends may be attractive for young adults particularly. Hence, this paper will analyse the characteristics that may make the urban legend “La dama de blanco” an appealing story for young adults. First of all, an urban legend is a contemporary folk story and is popularly believed to be true. It might have started as a true story, later it is spread incredibly fast. It becomes a phenomenon since it has been retold hundreds of times and taken as a true story. In particular, horror urban legends were passed around by mouth and they usually have happened to a friend of a friend, which provides a sense of proximity creating an extra factor of fear which is generally the expected one (Paranormal Haze, 2014). Most of these legends have changed over time and have variations depending on where they are told. They contain elements of humour but mostly of horror, a moral and often carry out a warning that motivates people to retell it when necessary. As soon as adolescents know about this kind of narratives, they love them and in this way urban legends become adolescent‟s favourites. There are certain characteristics that a piece of text should posses to be considered appealing to teenagers and an instance of Young Adult Literature (YAL), narratives written to young adults. Also these narratives deal with topics not only that are closer to them but also with problems they are facing. Characteristics of YAL are described by Robert C. Small Jr. (Hertz and Gallo,1996), and themes 1
Lengua y Expresión Escrita IV Paola Barros
I.S.F.D.N °30
Blas Bigatti
are described by Hertz and Gallo (1996). These themes are important and crucial to adolescents and they feel identified with the characters. Small states some characteristics that correspond to Young Adult novels:
The main character is a teenager; events and problems in the plot are related to teenagers; the main character is the center of the plot; dialogue reflects teenage speech, including slang; the point of view presents an adolescent‟s interpretation of events and people; the teenage main character is usually perceptive, sensitive, intelligent, mature, and independent; the novel is short, rarely more than 200 pages; the actions and decisions of the main characters are major factors in the outcome of the conflict. These characteristics can be used to analyze narratives and see whether if they apply to YAL or not. Apart from those features, Hertz and Gallo mention certain themes such as death, family conflicts and divorce among others. Teenagers are interested in darkness and death. A common reason to be interested in this is the horror that it contains. Yet the attraction to the horror genre is hard to explain. People‟s reasons for watching horror films or reading horror books include the need for excitement and the desire to feel intense emotions (The real truth, 2014). The Horror genre depicts violence and fear which are elements that the drama genre usually does not possess. People rarely watch horror films alone and for many adolescents, horror is a common topic when chatting. Horror embraces “the occult”, which has to do with magical, mystical or supernatural phenomena and it is part of the human nature because it is part of the taboo, macabre and morbid culture which are strongly linked to the main supernatural exponents: ghosts, aliens, vampires, demons, zombies, monsters, etc. this kind of genre demonstrates how fascinated and attracted human beings feel towards the mysterious and the unknown. Horror deals with the audience‟s fears and expectation whether they are reading or hearing a narrative. Romance is a universal topic among humans and it is present in most stories in one way or another. Romantic stories imply the physical attraction between two persons and the desire to solidify that love no matter what. Teenagers are experiencing the so called first love and they feel extremely identified with any story which contains the same emotions they are feeling. „La dama de blanco‟ is appealing to adolescents due to the horror and the mystical features it possesses. Adolescents feel attracted to inexplicable events, this is why, they are strongly intrigued and curious. They want to corroborate if these stories are true or not. In the case of “La dama de blanco”, teenagers would like to experiment that extreme situation and feel the horror for themselves. On one 2
Lengua y Expresión Escrita IV Paola Barros
I.S.F.D.N °30
Blas Bigatti
hand, they take the legend as an impossible situation to happen, but on the other hand, they want to discover if this supernatural situation could really happen. During the adolescence, teenagers find themselves in a constant search for new emotions. So, they may feel identified with the unknown and dark which gives young adults an extra factor of adrenaline. Some adolescents like horror and they consume it as a way to fulfil their need for new emotions. Even though most urban legends are not found mainly as a written source, they comprehend several of the YAL characteristic proposed by Small. Particularly, in “La dama de blanco” the protagonists are teenagers presenting their typical problems such as finding love or having friends. The boy found love and the girl wanted to be part of a group, this was their purpose for going to the party. The protagonists were also sensitive towards each other, living their short-life romance with a high and fearless intensity. The couple fell in love instantly and at the end of the night they wanted to keep on dating. Dealing with death has always been an intrigued topic for teenagers. We do not know what happens after dying and any instance of supernatural activity seems to be good to have some answer. Hertz and Gallo‟s proposal of death as an interest topic for adolescents is also present in this urban legend. The theme provides darkness and scariness since it deals with facing the death. In the narrative, the girl is death and the boy is supposed to have a supernatural interaction with her ghost which provides the scaring condiment. Then, the boy has to face the truth: she is dead. At first, he refuses to believe such a thing but then he visits her grave and he has no remedy but to face she is unreal. Nowadays, adolescents‟ view of romance in general is related to the occult and the forbidden. Its reason may be the great exposure that teenagers have to both topics which most of the times are found together or at least are closely linked in films or books such as “Twilight”. In this series saga the love story between a girl and a vampire is narrated. Also the characters are involved in a love triangle which apart from the vampire, includes a werewolf as the antagonist character. There is a market directed to teenagers which exposes them to the dark, the taboo and the supernatural. Clear examples are films, books, series and cartoons containing supernatural characters such as zombies, vampires, monsters, etc. However, the problem is that those products influence and shape their minds as regards romance. “La dama de blanco” contains an abnormal and forbidden romance between a boy and a girl‟s ghost. The idea of not being able to experiment and feel that unnatural love is extremely appealing to young adults since it belongs to the occult. It is noticeable that there are many characteristics that make the urban legend “La dama de blanco” a fascinating story for young adults. It contains many elements of YAL described by Small and Hertz and Gallo‟s themes. Eventually, “La
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Lengua y Expresión Escrita IV Paola Barros
I.S.F.D.N °30
Blas Bigatti
dama de blanco” is an appealing urban legend for adolescents since it comprises adolescents‟ most favourite topics: horror, taboo, romance, and the occult.
References The real truth http://realtruth.org/articles/121030-001.html (Accessed October 25th, 2014) Dictionary reference http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/urban+legend (Accessed October 25th, 2014) Life 123 http://www.life123.com/arts-culture/cinema/horror-movies/horror-genre.shtml (Accessed October 25th, 2014) The script lab http://thescriptlab.com/screenplay/genre/horror# (Accessed October 25th, 2014) Taringa http://www.taringa.net/posts/info/4954150/Leyendas-urbanas-de-la-ciudadde-Buenos-Aires.html (Accessed October 25th, 2014) Mitos urbanos http://www.argentina.gob.ar/informacion/cultura/104-mitos.php (Accessed October 25th, 2014) Hertz, S. and D. Gallo (1996) From Hinton to Hamlet: Building Bridges between Young Adult Literature and the Classics. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
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