The aim of this book is to orchestrate “a generic reconstitution of literary studies” based on a comprehensive theory of genre and generic transformation. Taking “An Excellent Ballad of George Barnwel,” a seventeenth-century broadside of sex and greed, Ralph Cohen analyzes the generic transformations—including Addison’s ballad criticism inThe Spectator,The London Merchant, Percy’s ballad editing inReliques, andBarnwell. A Novel—in which this particular ballad exhibits remarkable continuity over the next four centuries, culminating with his personal re-formation; what was...