Cryptid Becomings: The Transfiguration of Visual Rhetorics and Cryptid Folklore in a Re-imagining of Appalachia

Abstract

This dissertation uses interdisciplinary approaches from Appalachian studies, art history, folklore, philosophy, vernacular creation, and visual communication to explore images of Appalachian cryptids on Instagram. Informed by visual theory and methodology, select Instagram posts were analyzed and interpreted to uncover which cryptids are most popular on Instagram, how those cryptids are visually constructed, the stories their images tell, and how the images might function for users. Cryptids like the Mothman become clear favorites for the digital folk, and a process of transmission and transfiguration carries the cryptid and its folklore forward, albeit changed. Through this process, it is speculated that the cryptid offers ways to re imagine regions, people, and ideas.