Fragments and Meaning in Traditional Song: From the Blues to the Baltic

by Mary-Ann Constantine, Gerald Porter, Barre Toelken (Foreword)

This is a study of very short pieces long perceived as 'fragments' or remnants of longer narrative texts, and dismissed as the by-products of a degenerative oral tradition. Coverage includes English, Welsh, Breton, American, and Finnish songs. The authors argue that the inherently metaphorical and connotative idiom of traditional song makes external critical notions of 'completeness' in practice, such pieces are rarely felt to be broken or lacking by those who sing them - they have a strong metonymic force. A wide range of texts and traditions texts and traditions is explored to suggest how short songs may convey meaning both in performance and in non-traditional contexts such as the literary novel.

278 pages, Hardcover

First published October 2, 2003

About the author

Mary-Ann Constantine studies Romantic period literature, with an emphasis on Wales and Brittany, at Aberystwyth University and has published widely in these fields since 1996.

Her short stories have appeared over a number of years in the New Welsh Review and Planet and her first collection, The Breathing, was published by Planet in 2008. Her second collection, All the Souls was published by Seren in spring 2013.

Star-Shot is her debut novel.