A folklorist’s thoughts on place and identity
I walk through Knightsbridge and I don’t belong. Not economically. Not socially. Not in any material way. But I walk through it anyway because I want to understand it. I want to understand how people come to belong in such spaces. What stories they tell themselves. How they justify the inequality.
The thing about studying folklore is that you start to see everyone as performing a role. Everyone’s telling a story about who they are and why they belong where they are. The wealthy people in Knightsbridge are telling a story about merit and success. The homeless people outside are telling different stories. They’re all stories.
I was reading about mythology and belonging, and it said that folklore is how communities maintain themselves. How they say who belongs and who doesn’t. How they pass on values and stories and maintain hierarchy.
London’s folklore does all of that. And Knightsbridge is where it’s most concentrated. Most visible. Most powerful.
