ABSTRACT
Many scholars have argued that contemporary legends should be understood and interpreted in the context of social problems and anxieties. In this previously unpublished essay, Wyckoff turns the question round and argues that contemporary legend theory has utility in understanding the social construction of at least one such problem. The focus of the essay is childhood sexual abuse stories told by various interest-groups as America struggles to come to terms with “political correctness. “ “What cannot be said openly, “ she writes, “is being said surreptitiously through symbolic displacement.” An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Twelfth International Perspectives on Contemporary Legend Conference, Paris, France, July 1994. Portions of this work also appear in Wyckoff’s doctoral dissertation, Speaking About Life Experiences: Personal Narrativizing and Social Constructionism (1994).
