The Breton term for sung ballad, reflecting events of significance in the lives of the Breton peasantry (love, death, suffering and miracles). It differentiates from the sôn (pl. sonioù) , which are more lyrical and less brutal, including love songs, elegies, dance songs, games and songs for children.
Published in Chapter:
The Raven and the White Dove: (Un)Customary Representations of Women in Traditional Folk Breton Ballads
Emilia Ivancu (Institute for Romanian Language, Bucharest, Romania)
Copyright: © 2021
|Pages: 16
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-6458-5.ch014
Abstract
Starting with mid-19th century, song collecting in Brittany has remained important especially as the status of the Breton language depreciated in favour of French. Today the traditional Breton ballads (gwerziou) are an important instrument of remembering and understanding of both the past of the Breton people, and of their culture, as well as treasure of folk Breton language. The present chapter aims at analysing the representations of women in the traditional Breton ballads, ranging from witches, such as in Janik Kokard's leprotic lover, sinners such as Mari Kelen or saints like Bertet, Virgin Mary's kind midwife, all with the end of understanding the engines that led to (un)customary representations in which the woman is portrayed as both by the gaze of male sovereignty and the restrictions and projections of Catholicism.