HIST 223 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Spinning Wheel, Carnivalesque, Begging
15 Mar 2016
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R 13 nov. darnton, the great cat massacre, 9-72. Do you think that fairy tales are reliable historical sources for learning about peasant life in the. Carnivalesque nature: world turn upside down, peasant on top, master below. Take place within settings that correspond to peasant life: household/village. Folktales showed parents laboring in the fields, children gathering wood, fetching water, guarding sheep, spinning wool, begging. Wishes take the form of food, belly came first among wishes. Tales placed wives at the spinning wheel, tending livestock, hauling wood, mowing hay. Boys set out on the road in search of fortune (no land, work, food at home: become farm hand, domestic servants, apprentices. Confronted danger on travels france had no effective police force. Begging was common in tales: real beggars & fairies in disguise. Illustrates the desperation of those tottering on the line b/w poverty in the village and destitution on the road. Older rhymes belonged to a world of poverty, despair, death.
