Walking with ghosts – legend tripping as method

Link: Länk: https://gu-se.zoom.us/j/9175897520

Tina Paphitis is Marie Curie Research Fellow, University of Oslo and will be Associate Professor in Cultural Studies at the University of Bergen from January 2024.

Walking is a central act in numerous folk practices and performances, connecting people, nonhumans and things to places and temporalities through bodily and sensory encounters. One such practice is legend tripping: the act of visiting a place for its associated legend. This has predominantly been studied in the US as an adolescent practice in relation to contemporary legends, but the concept of legend tripping can be applied to various groups, places and periods. This talk explores the idea of moving beyond the legend trip and its participants as subjects of study towards using legend tripping as a research method, particularly within walking methodologies. Through an example of experimental fieldworking in Shetland, it will consider the impact of the legend tripping act on researchers and their entanglement with landscapes and narratives, and how such a method can enhance our engagement with humans, nonhumans and things across place and time.