Función de la literatura popular efímera en la conservación del folclore infantil anglosajón

Abstract

In this article we wish to examine two clear examples of Popular Ephemeral Literature in the English-speaking world: chapbooks and broadside ballads. They were originally addressed to adult readers; time and commercial interests converted them into the first amusement literature for children in a time when children's reading was limited to the educational and religious fields. The relevance of this poor quality ephemeral material for popular consumption is that the chapbooks and broadside ballads published between 1700 and 1840, embraced the body of popular literature spanning the four previous centuries, in an abridged form; and they have become a rich, unique and reliable source for the study and later compilation of children's folklore in English, constituting a valuable sources for a great number of folklorists to feed from. Moreover, this type of popular ephemeral — literature is the germ of other literary genres that are part of current popular culture: the comic, the detective novel, the love/romance novel...