The Many Faces of Bigfoot: Manifestations of a Mystery

Cryptozoology, or “the study of hidden animals,” focuses both on creatures generally considered extinct but believed by some to still exist, as well as creatures of mythology, legend, and folklore that are purported to be based on a biological reality. It is this latter emphasis with which Dr. Floyd’s presentation is concerned in relation to what he terms “Bigfoot types.”

Observing some of the ancillary genres of cryptozoology, citing Bigfoot-types in various literary, artistic, architectural, and popular areas, and with particular interest in the European Wild Man and Green Man, the Native American Hairy Man, and even Nordic trolls and ogres, Floyd’s presentation pursues the idea that such creatures and their similars have appeared so consistently throughout the matter of western civilization as to indicate a biological reality as their origin.

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David Floyd is Associate Professor of English at Charleston Southern University. He earned his first PhD in English from Stirling University in Scotland, and is currently pursuing a second doctorate, in Comparative Literature, through the University of Turku, Finland.

His literary research interests include Victorian culture and literature, especially genre fiction of the fin-de-siècle. His first book, Street Urchins, Sociopaths, and Degenerates: Orphans of Late-Victorian and Edwardian Fiction was published by the University of Wales Press in 2014, and examines orphans in gothic, island adventure, imperial, and children’s fiction.

David’s other research interests include Fortean subjects, particularly Bigfoot and other cryptids. He has presented at the 2015 Ohio Bigfoot Conference, the 2016 and 2017 Virginia Bigfoot Conferences, and 2017’s International Bigfoot Conference, and will appear in the upcoming documentary, Cultured Bigfoot. He has appeared on episodes 43, 83, and 104 of the SasWhat podcast, and the April 9, 2017 episode of the Monster X Radio show. His main focus is the appearance the Bigfoot-type creatures in myth, legend, folklore, and literature throughout history, as well as the cultural function and societal importance of such creatures.