The Lady Ghost and The Loch Monster: narrative, science and beliefs in discursive performances

Abstract

This article analyses the boundaries between fiction and history, science and belief, in two different narrative matrices: “The Lady Ghost” in its different names, and “the Nahuelito”, an Argentine version of the Loch Monster. Stories collected in different contexts and formats are examined, including media. The research focuses on the dynamics between scientific and narrative knowledge, which deals with the semantic domain of collective beliefs. These are understood as modal expressions, whose truth values rely on an intersubjective agreement. In this regard, ghostly apparitions and lock monsters can be considered rhetoric expressions of beliefs about the supernatural. These metaphoric creatures, in fact, tend to provide more satisfactory explanations about the symbolic sphere of experience than modern science.