Campus News

Big foot ‘fakelore’

A Discovery Channel News story about a false corpse of the legendary monster Bigfoot found in Northeast Georgia quoted Charles Doyle, associate professor in the English department.

“Much of the lore of Bigfoot, I suspect, is what one eminent folklorist a generation ago called ‘fakelore’-invented figures with little or no basis in actual oral tradition that are passed off as local folklore, figures like Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill-for purposes of P.R., attracting tourists, selling tabloid newspapers and magazines, creating children’s literature, etc.,” Doyle said.