Urban legends refer to astonishing but false or unverified stories that circulate in modern societies: for example, the anecdote of a small dog being dried in a microwave oven, the misadventure of a customer in an exotic restaurant who discovers a rat bone in the food, the unexpected presence of alligators in the sewers of New York... A contemporary manifestation of narrative folklore, these short and unusual stories symbolically express the fears and hopes emanating from the crisis of modernity.
