Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates agrarian romanticism in Britain through both historical folklore scholarship and current popular narratives portrayed on the BBC television series “River Cottage,” closing with a proposal for ethnographic study of the phenomenon.

Paper long abstract:

This paper investigates agrarian romanticism in Britain through both historical folklore scholarship and current popular narratives. Romantic epistemologies of urban and rural dominate the early scholarship of folkloristics, as well as current cultural ideals concerning sustainable agriculture, heritage farming, and simple living.

The Romantic epistemologies of early folklore scholarship itself should signal a significant starting place for an investigation of the impact of urban ideals and identities on rural places. This paper proposes that the Romantic epistemologies of early folklore scholarship concerning peasant life and agriculture, while possibly expunged from current academic theory, are alive and important in current vernacular worldviews that guide activities such as sustainable agriculture, heritage farming, and "downsizing" from hectic urban lives. What is the importance of agrarian romanticism as modern people seek to realize their ideals of countryside, its character, and its produce?

Moving from the Romanticism of early folkloristic scholarship towards current vernacular applications of Romantic epistemology, we will examine the popular narratives of rural places in Britian as portrayed in the BBC television series "River Cottage," a food and gardening show which follows a city chef as he moves to a rural cottage, downsizes, and learns to raise his own food on a small plot of land. Finally, extrapolating from the cultural narrative portrayed by this television show, this paper will propose possible ethnographic research on the motivations, experiences, and impacts of urban downsizers as they live the "River Cottage" dream.