ANNOUNCEMENT & CALL FOR PAPERS:
The Ballad Commission of SIEF
(International Society for Ethnology & Folklore)
invites you to the 26th
INTERNATIONAL
BALLAD
CONFERENCE
at University of Wales,
Swansea
July 19-23 *1996*
The IBC is a roving, annual, multidisciplinary
event dedicated to popular narrative song: a meeting
of (ethno-)musicologists, historians & critics of
popular & folk culture & literature from all over
Europe, the Americas & other parts of the world.
The main focus is on oral & part-oral traditions
rooted in the European past, including extensions of
these traditions in former colonies. Questions of
fieldwork & editorial practice & of international
comparison are regularly discussed.
Contributions on non-oral traditions (writing/print &
other media), on newer forms of narrative song
(including e.g. blues, rock, pop & rap), on unpopular
culture, & on non-European narrative songs are also very
welcome.
1996 is the centenary of the death of Francis James Child
(1825-1896), editor of The English & Scottish Popular Ballads.
Contributions on his legacy - & 'his' ballads - are particularly
sought.
Performances by local traditional singers are planned.
Other performers should bring instruments (if any).
A selection (possibly all) of the papers will be
published.
The following themes are suggested for 1996 - but
*all offers will be considered*:
CHILD & 'HIS' BALLADS
- historical, comparative & contemporary studies
BALLADS &/AS LITERATURE
- cross-fertilisations of oral, popular & literary traditions
- literary theory & narrative song research
- ballad editions as a literary genre
- textuality in traditional songs
BEYOND EUROCENTRISM
- non-European balladries
- ballads & (post)-colonialism
NARRATIVE SINGING IN WALES
- Welsh & Anglo-Welsh traditions
IBC 1996 is timed to precede directly the Folklore
Society's international conference, `The Dynamics
of Folklore: Beyond the Victorian Imagination',
at the nearby University of Glamorgan (July 24-28 1996).
To offer papers (deadline: Dec. 1 1995), to suggest topics,
or to receive mailings, contact: Tom Cheesman, School of
European Languages, University of Wales Swansea,
Swansea SA2 8PP, GB
Fax: 01792-295710
E-mail: t.cheesman@swan.ac.uk
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