‘The Voice of the People’ presents a series of essays on literary aspects of the European folk revival of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and focuses on two key practices of antiquarianism: the role that collecting and editing played in the formation of ethnological study in the European academy; and the business of publishing and editing, which produced many ‘folkloric’ texts of dubious authenticity. The volume also presents new readings of various genres, including the epic, song, tale and novel, and contributes to the study of several crucial European literary figures. Above all, it investigates the great anonymous authors of the European folk tradition – in narrative and lyric art – and their relation to the cultural movements and imagined identities of the peoples of the emerging nineteenth-century European nation.

"‘A masterly chronological line-up of scholarship from many lands, this book releases the European folk revival from its many confining nationalisms, making the folk/literary movements of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries individually and collectively legible for a new generation of scholars.’"

Angela Bourke Source: Advance Praise

"‘An ambitious and timely publication, which will be of great interest to both historians and literary critics. The book’s wide-ranging case studies cumulatively reaffirm the central role of “folk” and “popular” culture in the making of modern European literary sensibilities.’"

Philip Connell Source: Advance Praise

"‘This sparkling collection of essays reveals in intricate detail a cat’s cradle of regional, national, and international relations within the folklore revival. Marvellously ambitious and wide-ranging, it is sure to stimulate fresh research into the European contexts of folksong. It is impossible not to learn something from this rich and compelling work.’"

Nick Groom Source: Advance Praise