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 in The Spectator, The London Merchant, Percy's ballad editing in Reliques, and Barnwell...