Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths

Folklore, Dec, 2004 by David Atkinson

Renwick's English Folk Poetry (1980) remains one of the standard works of ballad and folksong studies, the prime exemplar of the application of a particular kind of structuralist methodology to trace how songs can draw part of their meaning from their textual context. It was, however, criticised by folksong scholars in England in particular for its perceived neglect of socio-historical context. Recentering Anglo/American Folksong is, in one sense, a revisiting of that argument, for it consciously places the textual content of folksongs at the heart of an intertextual strategy that seeks to illuminate context, performance, and the like. It remains to be seen whether folksong research, or folklore at large, can regain its footing among the fragmenting disciplines of the postmodern academy by reasserting its unique contribution to scholarship. Whether or not, studies like Renwick's--informative, stimulating, and a pleasure to read--will be required reading for anyone with a serious interest in anglophone folksongs and ballads.

David Atkinson, The Folklore Society