Hook or hatchet – Lover's Lane, love scene epilogue

Abstract

Myth of a co­u­ple who esca­pe de­ath in a chan­ce en­co­un­ter with the psycho­path with a ho­ok in­stead of a hand, is one of the ten clas­sic ur­ban le­gends that ha­ve been bro­ught to pu­blic at­ten­tion by fol­klo­rists du­ring the sixth and se­venth de­ca­de of the twen­ti­eth cen­tury. Emi­nent An­glo-Ame­ri­can fol­klo­rists de­di­ca­ted en­ti­re pa­pers, or sig­ni­fi­cant por­tion in the­ir works to this ta­le, as a con­tri­bu­tion to the study of ur­ban le­gends as a folk gen­re. In this es­say, the le­gend of the ho­ok is clo­sely lin­ked with the Boyfri­end's' de­ath le­gend, its her­me­tic in­ter­pre­ta­tion, and con­tex­tu­a­li­za­ti­on in the so­cial re­a­lity of se­xu­al re­la­ti­ons at the ti­me in which it oc­curs.