The coco still comes. Origin, survival and transformation of a child´s fear classic

Abstract

We discuss in this paper a mythological and folkloric figure, the coco, analyzing its etymological origin, as well as its functions and meanings from its first manifestations in the 15th century. A fieldwork with surveys and interviews done between 2009 and 2016 allows us to know first hand the symbolic variations of this fantastic beeing in Andalusia (Spain), but also to discover the continuities and breaks with regard to how the child´s fear is provoked and experienced in the 20th and 21st century, from an original lack of definition linked to the black and dark, up to the current mixtures of the cyberculture, where become present the images of terrifying or innocent beings from television series, movies and video games. The analysis of the coco reveals a way of representation the otherness through a diffuse and confused character, halfway between the man, the animal and the monster.