Control of the Dead and the Dead with Control:

The Social Uses of Spirits in Southern Ghostlore

This talk examines the uses of various southern ghost stories as means of social control through portrayals of death and dying, historical memory, and emotion.

As they reflected societies norms about death and dying, they subsequently helped not only continue many historical fallacies but also influenced the actions of the living by giving them ghostly depictions of the consequences of failing to meet societal expectations.

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