Kaarina Koski, University of Turku. "Belief narratives in social media

"Containment Failures: Supernatural Visitations, Folk Performance, and Europeans on the Edge in Mérimée's Ethnographic Fictions"

Klipi teostus: UTTV 06.10.2026 4 vaatamist Kultuuriteadus ja kunstid Folkloristika


Belief narratives are flexible and can adapt to new genres, forms, and environments. While societal changes have left some old motifs behind, new ones have emerged, and ghosts, especially, have survived such changes and entered urban milieus and electronic devices. The lecture will focus on belief tradition in Finnish social media, and especially narratives about ghosts and haunting. These narratives flourish in diverse forms and platforms. Descriptions of personal experiences are likely to be posted anonymously in discussion forums, where they are followed by dispute and speculation. In turn, widely known legends, are often performed as illustrated videos in YouTube and TikTok. Belief tradition also involves enacting the stories, and reports of legend trips and ghost hunts are presented both in verbal and videotaped form. I will explore the narrative strategies used by the performers and discuss the sources, contents and meanings of the narratives. The new digital forms and wider audiences impact the genres and narrator positions, but some narrative strategies are still similar to those observed in traditional face-to-face performances. The meanings of ghostlore reflect contemporary interests and concerns. While in older tradition, moral points used to be a central feature of belief narratives, ontological inquiries and emotional issues are more salient today.