ABSTRACT
It has long been accepted that what are often called contemporary or urban legends - the debate on the exact terminology to be used still rages - are a significant part of the teenage repertoire. Folklorists who have studied the genre (Brunvand, Dégh, Ellis, Smith, Dundes to name but a few) all make reference to the teenage or adolescent horror legend or scare story. One of the problems with this is, of course, that in coming from the genre (the contemporary legend) rather than the constituency (teenagers/adolescents), it falsely elevates the importance of this type of story in the teenage repertoire. Whilst it is clearly true that the horrific, the macabre, the bizarre and the distasteful are all very important and recurring images within the teenage oral narrative tradition, it would be wrong to place all such stories under the contemporary legend heading. The teenage repertoire is clearly far more complex than that. However, previous studies of the contemporary legend genre give us the impression that teenagers tell nothing but these stories.
