A term proposed in 1930 by Andre Jolles in his book Einfache Formen and brought into use in American folklore scholarship by Linda Dégh. In her examination of the processes of legend formation, Dégh utilized the metaphor of a conduit. Within a network of legend tellers, what she called the “legend conduit” circulates numerous oral versions of a given legend. Having determined that narrators will hold an array of attitudes ranging from acceptance through skepticism to outright opposition, she argues that those at the negative end of the spectrum are likely to transform the story into an anti-legend; that is, they will attempt to undermine the credibility of the story in order to impugn its veracity and to mock those who might be inclined to find the story worthy of retelling as true. Tactics used include rationalizations, alternative explanations, and the citation of supposed higher authorities. A committed narrator’s judgment might even be questioned, and his or her belief might be mocked as silly superstition. Since humor is one of the most effective means of challenging a fervent belief, some legend narratives are transformed into jokes or comical narratives. Often these stories, resembling catch tales or shaggy-dog stories, will turn on a surprise ending that catches the listener off guard. Having lured listeners into the story by the presentation of a series of plausible situations or credible details, in the end the “punch line,” frequently a pun or a parody of a well-known saying, reveals that the whole narrative was fallacious and the listener an unsuspecting dupe. For example, a story of an encounter with a ghostly revenant that pursues the narrator as he or she attempts an escape might conclude at the seemingly most harrowing moment with the eerie creature grabbing its victim only to say: “Tag you’re it.” Or a mysterious voice crying out in mournful tones: “One black eye” might be stopped with the smart-aleck retort: “You better shut up or you’ll have two black eyes.” The warnings offered by such tales are manifold; listeners are not only informed that the veracity of a particular belief (ghostly or spirit apparitions) is suspect, but they are further encouraged to dismiss legends altogether as foolish tales. The anti- legend, then, challenges both legend content and the social significance of the narrative genre as well. The efficacy of such attempts to overturn entrenched beliefs is questionable. The public appetite for tales of mysterious apparitions, strange voices in the night, and other baffling events continues to be insatiable. Indeed, many of these tales are essentially anti-legends minus the comical ending. Within the flow of the legend conduit, an anti-legend can readily be transformed into a belief tale. John Michael Vlach
References
Dégh, Linda, and Andrew Vazsonyi. 1971. Legend and Belief. Genre 4:281–304.
Vlach, John Michael. 1971. One Black Eye and Other Horrors: The Case for the Humorous Anti-
Legend. Indiana Folklore 4:95–140.