Assuaging Death and Assigning Blame: A Lyric Analysis of Mormon Murder Ballads

Abstract

Recently, there has been a growing interest in understanding the Mormon Church. While many approaches discuss contemporary Mormon culture, this article uses Fisher's narrative approach as a theoretical foundation for deconstructing 19th century Mormon culture through the use of its ballads. Specifically, this article investigates how Mormon and non-Mormon lyrical representations of violence influenced the beginnings of Mormon culture. Results demonstrate four Mormon cultural approaches to outside aggression. These approaches can be used to understand contemporary Mormon responses to actual or symbolic violence.