cyber-rose / mothmyth

First Year Monroe Project on the Mothman as an urban legend and how it relates to culture, presented as a website.

Moth Myth: Examining the Cultural Significance of the Mothman Narrative

Urban legends and monsters provide insight into how the people who tell them see the world. Changing monster narratives can signify change in the cultures that preserve them. This project demonstrates some of these cultural shifts using the Mothman. This legend’s more recent creation and thorough documentation shows us how urban legends are created and illuminates how Americans use storytelling to grapple with postwar society, modernization, urbanization, and trauma. This project builds on previous scholarship and focuses on key milestones in the legend’s history: the initial 1966 sighting, Silver Bridge collapse, John Keel’s 1975 novel The Mothman Prophecies, its 2002 film adaptation, post-film Mothman tourism, and Mothman in media post-2002. I examine stories popularized during these stages, their impact, and possible purposes. The Mothman narrative’s vulnerability to change helps it remain culturally relevant, and despite its many interpretations, the Mothman unites communities under shared interest.

This is a First Year Monroe Research Project funded by the Charles Center at the College of William and Mary. It was presented at William and Mary's Fall Undergraduate Research Symposium on September 30, 2022.

Future updates to this website may add content cut for time before the project was presented, including textualitzed versions of the verbal components from this project's presentation.