The historical study of popularity functions as a parallel system alongside literary historiography. In essence, it represents a branch of cultural studies situated at the crossroads of several disciplines. Its scope encompasses both ancient and modern fo

At the Intersection of Litterae and Literature

Abstract

The historical study of popularity functions as a parallel system alongside literary historiography. In essence, it represents a branch of cultural studies situated at the crossroads of several disciplines. Its scope encompasses both ancient and modern folklore, the deeprooted origins of mass culture, and their respective musical, ethnographic, art historical, and historical contexts. The forthcoming volume of the Hungarian literary history handbook dedicated to the eighteenth century includes numerous phenomena that show parallels with international popular literature and its publications (e.g., popular print materials), although in several cases these parallels are temporally displaced. The present essay is grounded in the observation that among the imitative-variational techniques of the archaic concept of litterae, it was precisely the popular genres that had the greatest opportunity to preserve earlier operational principles into the new literary paradigm — the era of literature. This process unfolds along two principal lines: 1. Genres of popular poetry served as models for certain works of later elite literature (e.g., during Romanticism). 2. Popular poetry sought access to the printed public sphere just as elite literature did. Through the widespread dissemination of popular printed materials (such as chapbooks, almanacs, etc.), this development led to the emergence of a distinctive neo-litterae, which continues to shape popular culture to this day.