Variations in Folkloristic Discourse in the Nineteenth-Century Press: Cecilia Böhl de Faber (1796–1877), Joseph Mainzer (1801–1851), Adolf Glassbrenner (1810–1867)

Abstract

This article highlights the connections between the production of folkloristic knowledge and expanding print markets in mid-nineteenth-century Europe. Looking at folkloristic writings from diverse geographical and social contexts, the article primarily focuses on the diverse socio-political and aesthetic sensitivities attached to the increased public interest in popular traditions. While Cecilia Böhl de Faber promoted a strongly idealizing and conservative view of the lower classes of the Spanish countryside, Joseph Mainzer’s works published in the French press addressed the creative potential of collective singing in urban contexts, and Anton Glassbrenner endeavoured to illustrate the democratic spirit of the lower classes in Berlin. The article shows that although all three authors promoted the exoticization and aestheticization of the ostensibly “authentic” habits, tales, and speaking modes of “the folk”, their views on the role of the lower classes within the social structure differed significantly. Keeping in mind the importance of mass media in enforcing collective conceptions of reality and political identity throughout the nineteenth century, this article creates new perspectives on the production of folkloristic knowledge within a broad socio-medial and political context.