„Ochránkyně sirotků a vdov.“Ovdovění a osiření v textech kramářských písní

Abstract

The paper examines widowhood and orphanhood in rural society in the light of the texts of broadsideballads, which were the most popular genre of folk reading in the early modern and 19th centuryvillages. Particular attention is paid to broadside ballads extant in the museums in the Pelhřimovregion, where micro-historic research focused on the living conditions of widowers, widowsand orphans has already been carried out. These broadside ballads typically perpetuate a stereotypeof a poor, sorely tried widow and a poor orphan, who rely on the help of the heavens and, by contrast,the figure of a wicked stepmother who maltreats her stepchildren, for which she is severelypunished. In spite of this, social reality has often differed from the literary image.