Dissertation committee:
Κωνσταντίνος Γαγανάκης, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής Τμήματος Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών
Παύλος Κάβουρας, Καθηγητής Τμήματος Μουσικών Σπουδών, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών
Μαρία Παπαθανασίου, Αναπληρώτρια Καθηγήτρια Τμήματος Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών
Νικολέττα Γιαντσή, Καθηγήτρια Τμήματος Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών
Ανδρονίκη Διαλέτη, Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια Τμήματος Ιστορίας, Αρχαιολογίας και Κοινωνικής Ανθρωπολογίας, Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλίας
Αικατερίνη Κωνσταντινίδου, Αναπληρώτρια Καθηγήτρια Τμήματος Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών
Αθηνά Συριάτου, Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια Τμήματος Ιστορίας και Εθνολογίας, Δημοκρίτειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θράκης
Summary:
This doctoral dissertation examines the representations of gender identities in the fields of work and interpersonal relationships, both inside and outside the household, through the English broadside ballads and their long history. In particular, starting from the beginning of the 17th century and up to the mid-19th century, the occupational identities of the protagonists of the ballads and the gender division of paid and unpaid work in England, prior to and after the Industrial Revolution, are examined through a macro-history approach from a macroscopic perspective that employs tools from social history, economic and cultural history, gender history and cultural anthropology. The first chapter focuses on ballads. It examines their history, the people who were involved in their production and their distribution as well as their functionality in the given socio-historical context, highlighting their multilevel function and their osmosis with the broader aspirations, needs and expectations of a society undergoing transformation. The second chapter, which focuses on the members of the family-household, examines the division of labour and the relevant stereotypical representations within the domestic context. Specifically, different members of the household group are examined, depending on their position and role (husband and wife and their children, married and unmarried, widowers and widows, domestic servants and apprentices). Furthermore, changes in gender relations, processes and rearrangements within the family-household, under the influence of rapid economic change and the emergence of the English working class, are discussed. The third chapter focuses on forms of work in the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy. Within each category, the occupational identities of men and women, the relevant stereotypical representations but also the gender division of labour and child labour, outside the context of the household, are examined. The shaping factors of the stereotypical representations concerning the occupational identities are highlighted. At the same time, the "nostalgia" for a past and lost "golden age" expressed in the broadside ballads of the first half of the 19th century, as well as the new class connotations that many ballads of the time acquire, are linked to the expansion of the "middling sort" and their attempt to become established in the public sphere as well. The fourth chapter is devoted to the stereotypical representations of work and gender in relation to the value system. In particular, the ideal of hard work and the demonization of laziness, the connection of sexuality with honor and immorality, courage as a key characteristic of the heroic character and the use of violence - culminating in homicide - as a key characteristic of the antihero are examined. Changes in projected ideals and stereotypes whose fluidity and multiplicity are linked to the rapidly changing socio-economic and cultural environment and a correspondingly fluid value system are examined through songs dealing with the reversal of gender roles. Overall, examining the broadside ballads brings to the surface strategies of social discipline and example, personal and collective micro-survival strategies, highlighting a rich, colorful, heterogeneous world. In the universe of ballads the tectonic changes that take place in English society, from pre-industrial to the first industrial age, are reflected through the projected gender and labour roles and their stereotypical but not inelastic representations.
Keywords:
Broadside ballads, History of England, History of the family, Labour History, Gender History, Early modern Europe, Modern Europe
