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- Title
English folk song collectors and the idea of the peasant.
- Authors
Knevett, Arthur; Gammon, Vic
- Abstract
In this essay we explore the ways folk song collectors active in England in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods used and engaged with contemporary discourses relating to the terms peasant and peasantry. We look into the understandings and connotations that the words had for the collectors and their wider society, the historical ideas that became associated with notions of the peasant, its use as an insult and the consequent reluctance of some collectors to use the word, as well as idealizations that became associated with it. We also look critically at the ways collectors' usages of the terms have been understood (and misunderstood) by recent writers. In place of rather one-dimensional interpretations we propose a nuanced and complex understanding of highly significant but difficult and conflicted terms. Our broader aim is to make a contribution to a better historical understanding of the English folk song movement.
- Subjects
UNITED Kingdom; ENGLISH folk songs; PEASANTS; FOLK songs; SOCIETIES; COLLECTORS &; collecting; HISTORY
- Publication
Folk Music Journal, 2016, Vol 11, Issue 1, p44
- ISSN
0531-9684
- Publication type
Article