Dying of love could be a great topic for a romantic story, but waking up in a coffin and dying of panic could be a great condiment for a horror story. It is known that stories are connected with imagination and personal experiences, which could be shared in a group with different purposes (Gail de Vos, 2003). Schools could be a perfect place where stories could be useful tools to work with groups. However, incorporating stories in classrooms could be a challenge for teachers. They have to deal with the possibility that adolescents may not feel attracted by the select story and as a consequence the possibility of failing on the proposal activities.
Selecting a correct story implies to bear in mind some important aspects such as young adult literature’s features (Herz & Gallo, 1993) and adolescents’ preferences (Gail de Vos, 2003), among others. The case of Rufina Cambaceres, an Argentinean urban legend, portrays some important aspects, which may encourage adolescents to read.
This paper will explore the possibility that "The case of Rufina Cambaceres", would be an appealing story that aloud teachers to work with different activities, in English classrooms.
It is important to take into account urban legends’ definition. In David Emery’s view (1997), “an urban legend is an apocryphal, second hand story, alleged to be true and just plausible enough to be believed, about some horrific, embarrassing, ironic, or exasperating series of events, which supposedly happened to a real person.”
There are some relevant situations to take into consideration to select an appropriate story. One of them is literature for adolescents or Young Adult Literature (YAL). Herz & Gallo (1996) acknowledges that YAL contains essential themes such as, love, death and family conflicts, among others, that are issues and topics that all students can benefit from reading and discussing.
The search for identity could be also another situation that adolescents want to explore, and a story that provides the possibility to probe various situations roles and values without suffering consequences (Gail de Vos, 2003), could also encourage adolescents to read.
Listening to adolescents' preferences may also help in the duty of selecting an appealing story. Attending the results of different surveys, it is important to mention that one of the most selected genres was horror stories. Last year, a group of teacher's trainees carried on different surveys. One of them, situated horror’s stories in the second place with 22% of the total (Barroca, Nieto, Olazabal, 2012) another one showed that 30,19 % of students preferred horror stories as their first option ( Gonzalez, Moreschi, 2011) and my own experience on a recent survey, also coincide on, that a 25% of students prefer horror stories.
Relying on the previous concepts, the case of Rufina Cambaceres seems to be a story that makes adolescents feel eager to read. First of all, the story is considered an urban legend, and according to Gail de Vos (2003), is better to start with a ghost story or an urban legend, to attract adolescents’ interest. One of the reason of this suggestion, is that “these stories have been polished and shaped throughout the time, and only the best, the most relevant, and often the most appropriate have been passed down through the ages and set in print.”
The story happened many years ago, in 1902, to be precise, and it is about Rufina, a nineteen-year-old girl. The girl belonged to an upper class, and she was known as a great beauty in her time. One day, after noticing that her fiancée was her mother's lover, she suffered from a sudden and fatal heart attack. But the reports said that in fact she suffered from catalepsy and she was buried alive. Since that, many witnesses have claimed to see Rufina's ghost walking around Recoleta cemetery, and its nearest.
Secondly, essential themes such as love, death and family conflicts are present in the story. The case of Rufina Cambaceres not only relates a love story and a family conflict but also relates Rufina’s death. Rufina is an adolescent and she lived a sweet love story up to the moment that she noticed the deceit that her fiancée and her mother had done. In that moment, a family conflict started, her mother, the person who supposedly should guide Rufina's life, broke her heart. Regarding an essential theme like death, some years ago, Rufina had to experiment her father's death and she also had to face her own death. She was thought died by her mother and doctors and then buried, but in fact she was alive and she died of panic inside a coffin. This part of the story, also presents an excellent opportunity for adolescents to experiment or probe death without suffering consequences.
Finally, the selection of a right story implies to have in mind the genre, and horror is one of the most preferred by adolescents. In the case of Rufina Cambaceres, horror is present not only in the fact that she was buried alive, but also through the paranormal phenomena depicted in the fact that she was watched walking along the cemetery and its nearest after death.
Understanding adolescent's reading preferences and knowing relevant characteristic of YAL may help teachers, to choose an appealing story which could function as a trigger, in reading activities. The case of Rufina Cambaceres seems to have many features and situations that make adolescents eager to read. It seems to be urgent for teachers to have in mind that when adolescents feel lured by a story, would be a strong possibility to succeed on reading activities in English classroom.
REFERENCES
- De Vos, Gail (2003) Storytelling for Young Adults: A guide to Tales for Teens. Westport, Connecticut: Libraries Unlimited.
- Emery, David (1997) Urban Legends. http:// urban legends.about.com/bio/David-Emery-1417.htm Accessed 17/10/2013.
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