Professor: Patricia Fumerton
Time and Place:
Office Hours: Fumerton SH 2506, [TBA] and by appt.

Links to Other Ballad Sites

DESCRIPTION:

This course will study the evolving culture of the most published and most read of literary forms in early modern England: the broadside ballad. The goal is to understand the printed ballad within its changing aesthetic and historical contexts. In each class, we will read a sampling of ballads from the period in light of critical works that address the following topics: definition (what is a ballad?), formal features (paper, print, illustrations), production and dissemination (authors, printers/publishers, and peddlers/chapmen), orality (music and performance), collectors and collecting processes (Pepys, Roxburghe et al), the specific collections of the Pepys and Roxburghe ballads, and, finally, some popular ballads that cross collections and genres.

REQUIREMENTS:

1) Regular attendance and participation.
2) Two oral reports (5-10 minutes); Sign-up sheet.
3) A Research Paper (10-12 pp.) on a topic of your choice. We encourage you to write about a ballad or set of ballads that bear upon your dissertation interests or to write about a facet of the Roxburghe collection (distinctive features of a volumes(s), recurring themes, etc.) for mounting online in EBBA.

TEXTS:

Tessa Watt, Cheap Print and Popular Piety, 1550-1650, available in the UCSB bookstore (a copy will also be available in the EMC)

Note: the ballads for this course will be available in EBBA (http://ebba.english.ucsb.edu) or provided via the course website as pdfs or jpgs; the critical essays will be made available as pdfs.
Abbreviations:
Pepys = Broadside Ballads from the Pepys Collection
Ballads = Ballads and Broadsides in Britain, 1500-1800

Bibliography and Recommended Reading