Makes the case that conspiracy theories are fundamentally a folklore genre, akin to and often involving other belief narratives like rumor and legend
Whispers in the Echo Chamber: Folklore and the Role of Conspiracy Theory in Contemporary Society makes the case that conspiracy theories are fundamentally a folklore genre, akin to and often involving other belief narratives like rumor and legend. The editors and contributors show that studying conspiracy theories using the tools of folkloristics is a fruitful and necessary analytical exercise. The volume’s three parts lay out folkloristic approaches to conspiracy theories; ways folkloristics can help us understand how conspiracy theories are constructed; and how the genre of conspiracy theories interacts with particular, contemporary political contexts.
Jesse A. Fivecoate and Andrea Kitta’s timely volume complements studies from political science, sociology, psychology, history, and more, while also crucially calling for the field of folklore studies to engage more fully with conspiracy theories as a genre. Focusing on modern iterations of sometimes quite ancient conspiracy motifs and themes, the volume forcibly illustrates the crucial relevance of this prevalent and influential form of folklore in today’s interconnected world.
“A substantial contribution that makes the important point that conspiracy theories are traditional and performative—a form of folk narrative. Showing these linkages gives this volume a particular power.” - Gary Alan Fine, author of Tiny Publics: A Theory of Group Culture and Action
“This book is a welcome addition, enlarging and deepening our understanding of conspiracy theories: accusatory, vernacular products, shaped by our new media, that worryingly provide the wrong answers even to the right questions.” - Véronique Campîon-Vincent, author of Organ Theft Legends
Jesse A. Fivecoate, a folklorist and sociocultural anthropologist with a PhD from Indiana University, studies the use of communal belief narratives that circulate within a group as a way of remembering and discussing episodes of conflict and crisis. He is a coeditor of Advancing Folkloristics.
Andrea Kitta is a folklorist and a professor of multicultural and transnational literature in the Department of English at East Carolina University. She is the author of Vaccinations and Public Concern in History: Legend, Rumor, and Risk Perception and The Kiss of Death: Contamination, Contagion, and Folklore as well as a coeditor of Diagnosing Folklore: Perspectives on Health, Trauma, and Disability.
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