In study of [[folklore]] and [[urban legend]]s, '''ostension''' is the process of acting out a folk narrative, i.e., real-life happenings that parallel the events told in pre-existing and well-established [[legend]]s and lore.
Ostension has become an important concept for folklorists studying the ways in which folklore affects everyday people's real lives, ranging from supernatural rituals such as [[legend tripping]] to the complex ways in which awareness of [[AIDS]] has affected people's sexual habits.<ref>Goldstein, Diane. ''Once upon a Virus'' (2004).</ref> Folklorist [[John McDowell]] explored the relationship between [[iconicity]]—representation—and ostension—presentation—in mythic narrative, finding in episodes of ostention a virtual encounter with the experiential substrate, an experience that he termed "narrative epiphany".<ref>"Beyond Iconicity: Ostension in Kamsa Mythic Narrative, Journal of the Folklore Institute 19 (1982). pp 119–139.</ref>
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== Theory == Semiotician [[Umberto Eco]] was the first to use the term "[[ostension (communication)|ostension]]" to describe the way in which people communicate messages through miming actions, as by holding up a pack of cigarettes to say, "Would you like one?"<ref>Eco, Umberto. ''A Theory of Semiotics.'' pp 224–26.</ref> The concept was applied to [[semiotic analysis]] of contemporary legends by [[John Holmes McDowell]] (1982)<ref>[[John Holmes McDowell]] "Beyond Iconicity: Ostension in Kamsá Mythic Narrative"</ref> and by folklorists [[Linda Dégh]] and [[Andrew Vázsonyi]] (1983). In their article, "Does the Word ‘Dog’ Bite?", seminal for the concept in folkloristics, Dégh and Vázsonyi argued that the most direct form of ostension involved committing an actual crime mentioned in a well-known urban legend, such as microwaving someone's pet animal or placing poison in a child's Halloween candy. While such events are rare, the authors stressed that folklorists must recognize "that fact can become narrative and narrative can become fact."<ref name="DéghVázsonyi">{{cite journal|last1=Dégh|first1=Linda|last2=Vázsonyi|first2=Andrew|title=Does the Word 'Dog' Bite? Ostensive Action: A Means of Legend Telling|journal=Journal of Folklore Research|date=1983|volume=20|pages=5–34}}</ref>{{rp|29}}
Dégh and Vázsonyi, followed by other analysts, argued that there were two other forms of ostension that did not necessarily involve literal acting out of legends.
''Quasi-ostension'' involves interpretation of ambiguous events in terms of a legend, as when a murder is first believed to have been a "cult" sacrifice or "gang" murder when in fact the perpetrator had other motives. Many local media panics are based in this form of ostension.<ref>Ellis, Bill. Legend-Trips and Satanism: Adolescents' Ostensive Traditions as "Cult" Activity. In Richardson et al., ''The Satanism Scare,'' pp 279–295.</ref>
''Pseudo-ostension'' involves legend-like events intentionally acted out by persons aware of the original narrative. For example, in 1991, [[Ebony (magazine)|''Ebony'']] published a letter written by "C.J." a Dallas-area woman who said she was HIV-positive, but intentionally having sex with as many men as possible. Soon after, a local radio talk-show broadcast a phone call from a woman who said she was the real "C.J." "I blame it on men, period," she said to the talk-show host. "I'm doing it to all the men because it was a man that gave it to me." After a huge spike in males seeking HIV screening in the Dallas-Fort-Worth area, both the author of the letter and the talk-show caller were identified as hoaxers intending to raise awareness of the disease.<ref>''FOAFTale News'' 25 (March 1992): p 11.</ref>
Folklorist [[Jeffrey Tolbert]] argues that the "[[Slender Man]]" phenomenon represents a process he calls ''reverse ostension''. According to Tolbert, the Slender Man does the opposite to ostension by creating a set of folklore-like narratives where none existed before. According to Tolbert, this represents two processes in one: it involves the creation of new objects and new disconnected examples of experience, and it involves the combination of these elements into a body of "traditional" narratives, modeled on existing folklore.<ref name="Tolbert 2013">{{cite journal |last=Tolbert |first=Jeffrey A. |date=2013 |title=The Sort of Story That has You Covering Your Mirrors:The Case of Slender Man |url=http://www.semioticreview.com/pdf/monsters/tolbert_slenderman.pdf |journal=Semiotic Review |issue=2 |access-date=13 July 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151010074358/http://www.semioticreview.com/pdf/monsters/tolbert_slenderman.pdf |archive-date=10 October 2015}}</ref>
==See also== {{Wiktionary|ostension}} * [[Archetype]] * [[Exemplification]] * [[Legend tripping]]
==Notes== <references/>
==References== *{{cite journal | last =Dégh | first =Linda | author-link = Linda Dégh |author2=Andrew Vázsonyi | title =Does the Word 'Dog' Bite? Ostensive Action: A Means of Legend Telling | journal =Journal of Folklore Research | volume =20 | pages =5–34 | date =1983 }} *{{cite book | last = Eco | first = Umberto | author-link = Umberto Eco | title = A Theory of Semiotics | publisher = Indiana University Press | date = 1976 | isbn = 0-253-20217-5}} *{{cite book | last = Goldstein | first = Diane E | author-link = Diane Goldstein | title = Once upon a Virus: Aids Legends and Vernacular Risk Perception. | publisher = Utah State University Press | date = 2004 | location = Logan, UT | isbn = 0-87421-587-0 }} *{{Cite book | last1 = Richardson | first1 = James T. | author-link = James T. Richardson | last2 = Best | first2 = Joel | last3 = Bromley | first3 = David | title = The Satanism Scare | place= New York | publisher = Aldine de Gruyter | year =1991 | isbn = 0-202-30379-9 }} * {{cite book|last1=Sperber|first1=Dan|author-link1=Dan Sperber|last2=Wilson|first2=Deirdre|author-link2=Deirdre Wilson|title=Relevance: Communication and Cognition|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|isbn=978-0631198789|year=1995}} *{{cite book | last = Jaegwon | first = Kim | display-authors=etal. | author-link = Kim Jaegwon | title = Metaphysics: An anthology | publisher = Wiley-Blackwell | date = 2012 | location = Chichester, U.K. | isbn = 978-1-4443-3102-8 }} *{{cite journal|last1=Ellis|first1=Bill|title=Death by Folklore: Ostension, Contemporary Legend, and Murder|journal=Western Folklore|date=July 1989|volume=48|issue=3|pages=201–220|doi=10.2307/1499739|jstor=1499739 }}
==Further reading== * ''[[Ostension: Word Learning and the Embodied Mind]]''. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2014
[[Category:Communication theory]] [[Category:Human communication]] [[Category:Linguistics]]