A transnational study of eighteenth-century English street literature and Spanish literatura de cordel: Cluer Dicey and Agustín Laborda

Abstract

The present doctoral dissertation proposes a comparative analysis of English and Spanish ephemeral literature of the eighteenth century, more precisely, what has been coined by scholars as street literature and literatura de cordel. The unsophisticated compositions that form each genre became, soon after the invention of the printing press, the main reading matter available in both England and Spain. Broadside ballads, histories, relations, songsters, romances, relaciones, aleluyas, and other forms of print were, for centuries, the primary cheap reading material of the working classes, produced specifically to suit their taste. These printed papers were peddled everywhere, in urban streets and alleyways, taverns, coffee houses, at provincial fairs and markets, public executions, or wherever else people congregated in great numbers.