Literary history, popular religion, popular music, folk songs, German Bänkelsang

The study explores Czech broadside ballads as a distinctive phenomenon of song culture which in the Czech lands experienced extraordinary expansion in the second half of the early modern period with a significant overlap into the nineteenth century. While passing through urban and rural classes, its development went hand in hand with increasing literacy in society. He also deals with social aspects of this printed culture, its relation to folklore, and, finally, similar phenomena in the surrounding Central European countries.