Browsing by Subject "Ballads"

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    I Darena Lat You In: The Child Ballads, Academic Canons, and the Folk Tradition
    (2024) Bishop, Jared; Stadler, Gustavus
    Much academic criticism has been levied against proto-folklorist Francis James Child’s The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (ESPB), primarily focused around how he attempted to define and canonize an entire folk tradition. This thesis argues that while critics may be right about the extent to which the ESPB can be used as an anthology, there still is need and use for looking at this text, especially as it has sprouted adjacent traditions based solely around it. By tracing the ESPB from its origins to its placement in modern academia and the larger folk community today, I explore the canonization of the ESPB as a way of revealing the tension between the closed, rigid nature of academia, and the explosively mutable and communal nature of folk.