Gathering the Fragments: Storytelling and Cultural Resistance in Cornwall

The central theme of this book is the importance of the act of shared memory in reconstituting identity in every generation. This is particularly so where the traditional culture of the community has been under threat from a powerful neighbour, as is the case in Cornwall, and this is why the same pattern tends to recur, not because of direct cultural transmission, but because the same problems evoke similar responses. In such a context, storytelling becomes an act of cultural resistance. Th...