ABSTRACT
The emotional content of crime ballads put forward a powerful claim to both public interest in, and public power over, the subjectivity of individual lawbreakers. English crime ballads showed a strong focus on the inner life of the criminal—both in examination of the path to crime, and in reflections on a misspent life. The emotional scripting of crime ballads may seem trivial; arguably these commercial and conventional productions are not the place to look for genuine reflections of early modern subjectivity or insight into cultural development. Although sensationalism has often been justifiably decried for its commercial exploitation of crime, sex, and scandal, it has also been a powerful medium insisting on cultural consensus. In the emotional patterning of English crime ballads, criminal action results from succumbing to errant emotions, but punishment reshapes inner experience to match recognized emotional scripts. The crime ballads in one sense offer a classic Foucauldian scenario of the punishing state power as shaper of subjective experience.
