The Ballad Revival in Romantic era Britain Germany and Scandinavia

Engaging with research fields including studies of cultural transfer, reception, transtextuality and adaptation, Lis Møller charts the circulation of ideas and texts – popular ballads and literary works inspired by popular balladry – between three languages: English, German and Danish. By tracing such exchanges, she challenges the idea that the Romantic-era ballad revival represented an inward turn towards the roots of one’s national culture. As an alternative to the national approach, Møller proposes to view the ballad revival as a search for Northern European cultural entanglements. This book therefore contributes to the new trend in Romantic studies, which, moving beyond the mono-national approach, focuses on European Romanticism and explores the interaction of individual Romanticisms across national borders.