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Paper short abstract

The forest is common motif in folk and fairy tale traditions, a space that encompasses the liberating possibilities and the real dangers of straying away from home. This paper considers how the ambiguity of “the forest” is invoked in contemporary narratives of gendered violence in true crime media.

Paper long abstract

The forest is common motif found in folk and fairy tale traditions, a space that simultaneously encompasses the liberating possibilities and the very real dangers of straying away from the familiarity of home. This paper examines this motif in the folk narrative tradition of murder ballads and related genres of storytelling in the United States. Specifically, it considers how the ambiguity of “the forest” is strategically invoked in contemporary narratives of gendered violence in true crime media. It examines how both literal and metaphorical references to “the forest” are used by narrators to call into question the contested terrain of experience shaping the stories women share about danger, blame, and potential victimhood. Attending to the natural landscape of the forest as a contested terrain itself within the discursive landscape of true crime storytelling, this paper builds on Amy Shuman’s important observation that “Stories rarely if ever belong to a single category of experience; more often, storytelling demonstrates an awareness of multiple possible categories, some compatible, some contested, some provocative or marked, and others assumed or naturalized” (2005:16). Ultimately, this paper’s focus on narrative engagement with “the forest” in true crime storytelling offers insight into the multiple discourses women must navigate as they recognize themselves as always already a potential victim of gendered violence in a dangerous world.