Criminal songs: The hero and the plot

Abstract

The criminal song is considered as a phenomenon of urban folklore functionally linked to the criminal community as an archaic subculture. The author characterises the plot structure of the criminal song: the system-building characters, their plot function, and typical motives. The article poses the question as to the thematic typology of the criminal song. It is emphasised that the bearer of the criminal song characteristics, its “gene” is the main character (the crime lord), whereas the other characters and different situations are found in folklore and plots are borrowed from other fields of the folk or popular song. Having borrowed ‘external’ material, the criminal song develops its own language meant to model and interpret its special worldview.

Keywords

• criminal song
• folklore
• plot and character typology