Abstract
AbstractThis essay offers new suggestions in the study of sixteenth‐ and seventeenth‐century English and Irish literature through a specifically folkloric lens. While scholars of medieval and modern texts in Ireland have made much progress in uncovering and debating the presence of popular oral traditions (and orality in general) in their respective sources, those who focus on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have yet to fully explore the same attributes in their own rich body of literature. This essay will therefore survey the sources, methods, and directions which a “folkloric turn” can take, especially as it incorporates a range of models that can be used to analyze orality, residues of popular traditions, and the utilization of particular motifs to open a new prism onto the period. While there are certainly challenges in utilizing this approach, folklore has the potential to contextualize and deepen our understanding of sources that include antiquarian records, travel accounts, ballads, legal depositions, English and Irish poetry, and even the modern folkloric tales to which they relate.
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