POPULAR CULTURE• Popular culture is “a system of shared meanings,

attitudes, and values and the symbolic forms in which they are expressed or embodied held by non-elite social groups”– It is the culture of the poor and uneducated as

opposed to that of the wealthy and educated– In an illiterate world, it is the main vehicle for the

transmission of ideas, feelings, and criticism by the lower classes• It is how they express their view of the world

and their opinion of it.

ROBIN HOODRobin Hood never existed

but he nonetheless became the greatest hero of English popular legend

He was basically a terroristhe robbed and killed

landowners and carried out a virtual civil war against established authority.

But the English common people loved his legend

Why?

FIRST REFERENCEFirst reference to Robin Hood appeared in a book, Piers the Plowman, by William Langland, in 1370sIn the book, a man meets various allegorical characters representing the problems of the age

one character is “Slouth” ( a lazy priest who doesn’t do his job)

Described as “He is ignorant of Latin and of the things of religion but he is a skilled hunter of hares. His does not know how to say mass but he knows the rhymes of Robin Hood.”Best guess is that the Robin Hood ballads began to circulate in the late 1200s

no one is sure what gave rise to them or what event gave birth to them.

ORIGINAL STORIES

• There were four original ballads of Robin Hood– Gest of Robyn Hode– Robin Hood and the

Monk– Robin Hood and Guy of

Gisborne– Robin Hood and the

Potter

TOUGH GUYS

Common image of Robin Hood and his gang as a bunch of “merry men” is inaccurate

“merry,” “cheerful,” and “carefree” stuff is of relatively recent invention

Robin and his men are mean and violent—you did not mess with them

partly because of the general character of the periodit was a violent time

PERIOD OF DISLOCATION• Was a period of severe dislocation and

unrest in England– Caused by breakdown of the feudal

system

• English kings had broke down the local power of nobles and replaced in with a national system of law and administration– By using an increasingly sophisticated

network of appointed officials and court system

– Made nobility cling even more stubbornly to those local rights and privileges that they still retained• Especially their economic and social

rights over peasants

Henry VI

POWER STRUGGLE• English peasants were no longer

serfs but many vestiges of serfdom remained– Various fees, labor services, and

rents

• Peasants were caught in the middle of a massive power struggle between the monarchy and nobility– King was trying to exert direct

control over them with new officials, laws, and taxes

– Nobility continued to impose old exactions on them as much, if not more, than ever

SYMBOLIC STRUGGLE• Sheriff of Nottingham represented the

growing power of the central government– Peasants severely resented the new

taxes and new laws such officials were trying to enforce

• The king himself was never blamed for this oppressive interference– Peasants believed that he was good

but surrounded by evil officials who were acting without his knowledge or authority

– When he learned what these officials were up to, he would put a stop to it and punish them

VICARIOUS REVENGE

• Robin Hood was a powerful symbol of what peasants would like to do to resist the encroachments of central authority– He also concentrated his

efforts on the agents of this encroachment and not the real source of the problem• The King himself

ENGLISH PEASANTS’ WAR• English peasantry rose up in a

massive rebellion against the ever-expanding network of royal officials (with their taxes, laws, and punishments) in 1381– Uprising was only defeated

when rebel leaders (led by Wat Tyler) met with the king and agreed to accept his concessions

– But as the meeting broke up, the king had all rebel leaders killed and, deprived of leadership, the revolt died out

THE NOBILITY AND ROBIN HOOD• Growing power of the central state also

threatened the well-being and independence of local nobles– Therefore nobles do not generally appear

in the ballads as villains• Robin Hood ballads therefore enjoyed a great

deal of popularity among local nobles– By the time the ballads were written

down, any original negative reference to the nobility had been taken out

• Robin Hood was attractive to both peasants and the local nobility because he symbolized resistance to their common enemy– Even though they were never allies in real

life

PROXY VILLAIN

• Any specific reference to increased exploitation by local nobles had disappeared from the ballads before they were first written down– So a proxy villain was

invented• the churchman—

specifically the abbot of St. Mary’s monastary

HATED BY EVERYONE• St. Mary’s was a huge Benedictine abbey in

Yorkshire that controlled tens of thousands of acres of farmland– Which it rented out in small parcels to local

peasants– Abbot was hated because he was a perfect

example of “unrelenting landlordism”– Abbey also held mortgages on noble

estates• Churchmen symbolized the greedy demands

of local landlords to peasants and the callousness of high finance to petty local nobles

• Both peasants and nobles saw churchmen as villains in real life and they also appear as such in the ballads

SUMMARY

• Robin Hood did have a certain reality in the social and political conditions of 13th and 14th century England– Means of symbolic resistance to the intrusion of

the modern state into local, rural life– Also represented a model of active opposition to

the encroachments of the state• As illustrated by the English Peasants’ War of

1381

CARNIVAL

• Biggest holiday in medieval Europe• Very old– No one knows exactly when it started

• Strongest in southern Europe– Spain, Italy, southern France, southern

Germany, Portugal, and Greece– Before the Reformation it was also

celebrated in England, Holland, Belgium, northern Germany, and Eastern Europe

– Later transported by Spanish and Portuguese to Latin America and by the French to New Orleans

CARNIVAL SEASON• Carnival celebrations differed from

locality to locality and also from year to year in the same locality (depending on the weather, the local political situation and the price of meat)

• Carnival season began in January and increased in activity and excitement as Lent approached.– The night before Ash Wednesday

was the culmination of the festival• Called “Mardi Gras” in French• “Shrove Tuesday” in English

RITUALS AND EVENTS• Ritual is an action used to express

meaning, as opposed to accomplishing something concrete

• Two forms of activity during Carnival– Official events• Formal events that erupted

periodically during the week leading up to Mardi Gras

– Unofficial, more spontaneous, events• Erupted intermittently

during the entire Carnival season

UNOFFICIAL ACTIVITIES • Massive Eating

– Especially of meat and pancakes• Massive Drinking

– Beer, wine, and ale• Singing and dancing• People wore masks

– Men dressed up as women; women dressed up as men

– Others dresses as devils, fools, wild men, and animals

• Verbal aggression– People insulted each other; insulted

their social superiors, and sang satirical songs about kings, priests, and nobles

OFFICIAL EVENTS• Official events generally organized by clubs

of young people• They had no scripts nor did they rehearse

but they were “organized” in the sense that they always included the following elements– A procession or parade that included

crude floats– Some sort of competition

• Foot race, horse race or mock jousts– Carnival play

• Mock army attacking a castle; Mock civil trials; Fake priests giving funny sermons; Mock weddings

• All contained symbolic conflict between Carnival and Lent– Carnival always lost and was burnt

FOOD

• Three most common themes were food, sex, and violence

• Food was most common theme• “Carnival” is based on the word

“carne” (which means “meat” in Italian, Spanish, and Latin)– Carnival characterized by heavy

consumption of pork, beef, and other types of meat

– Meat also appears symbolically

SEX• Carnival was a period of

intense sexual activity

• Weddings often took place during season

• Animals that symbolized Carnival were also medieval symbols for lust and sex– Rooster, pig, and the bear

• Great deal of sexual symbolism

AGGRESSION• Aggression, destruction, and

desecration– Mostly expressed symbolically in

rituals• Verbal aggression– Celebrants allowed to even insult

their social superiors without fear of punishment

– Sometimes government officials and even the king himself were insulted

• Aggression also ritualized in mock battles and the various types of competitions.

President Sarkozy of France

OPPOSITION BETWEEN LENT AND CARNIVAL

• Personified by fat, jolly man (Carnival) and thin, mean woman (Lent)

• Lent was a time of fasting and abstinence– Natural to portray it as an emaciated old kill-joy

• Carnival represented everything that was missing in Lent– Young, cheerful, fat, horny and a huge eater and

drinker• Carnival represented the opposition between the

coming “lean” times of Lent and natural human urges and desires– One last blowout before the imposed hardships

of Lent start

SECOND OPPOSITION

• Opposed to the everyday• An enactment of the “world

turned upside down”– One of the most popular

themes of medieval popular culture• Repeated constantly

in drawings and illustrations of the period

• Land of Cockaigne

TEMPORARY COCKAIGNE• Carnival was a temporary Cockaigne– Many Carnival rituals involved role

reversals

– All restraints, role positions, and taboos that made up the rigidly stratified structure of medieval society seemed to temporarily collapse, replaced by their total opposites

– Opportunity of temporarily “turn the world upside down” was one of the main attractions of Carnival

PURPOSE OF CARNIVAL

• At one level, Carnival was simple entertainment

• But at another level, it was a symbolic protest against the social order of the Middle Ages– By reversing sexual roles,

criticizing public authorities, the common people were subliminally expressing their discontent with the way society was organized and their subordinate place in it

BIG QUESTION

• Despite the fact that Carnival was a vicarious criticism of the established order, the nobility and public officials always played an active role in organizing and encouraging Carnival celebrations

• WHY?

LICENSE OF RITUAL• Max Gluckman noticed many incidents of

role reversal among the Zulu tribe– Unmarried Zulu women put on men’s

clothes, carried shields and spears, and sang dirty songs

– Ordinary men were encouraged to criticize and insult their king

• This temporary turning the world upside down was “intended to preserve and even strengthen the social order

• Zulu role reversals led to “an enhanced sense of community, followed by a sober return to normal social structure.”

• By making the low high and the high low, these reversals reaffirmed the hierarchical principle.

AGENDA OF THE UPPER CLASSES

• European upper classes were aware that the society they lived in, with its gross inequality in wealth and status, could not survive without a “safety valve”– Without a means for

those at the bottom to get rid of their resentments and frustrations

SAFETY VALVE• Common people were encouraged to

“blow off steam” during the Carnival– But they were also encouraged to do so

in channeled directions• Authorities still watched Carnival carefully– If things went too far, if violence or

verbal criticism went beyond certain limits, the authorities would still step in

– Reason why there was so much symbolic ritual• Actual violence was not allowed so

it had to be subliminated into rituals

FUN IS OVER

• Trial, execution, and burial of Carnival image was important in this regard– It was the culmination of the festival– Intended to demonstrate to the

common people that the time for “license” was officially over and that they had to return to the sober reality of everyday life• That the “world turned upside

down” was over and that it was time to put the world back right side up again

SUMMARY (1)

• At its most elementary level, Carnival was fun– Last chance to celebrate those aspects of human

nature that had to be curtailed during Lent• Also a way to blow off steam caused by the normal

restraints and inequalities of medieval society and thereby avoid a future explosion

• Also a controlled emission of steam, in which there were unspoken limits and definite time limit, so that things would not get out of hand

SUMMARY (2)

• Carnival simultaneously provided entertainment, a religious function (by reminding people what they would have to give up during Lent), and an important socio-political function (by allowing people a controlled way to vent their frustrations against society) that preserved society itself