Ballad Closure and the Woman’s Voice in Eastern Sephardic Tradition: The Examples of Silvana, El forzador and El robo de Dina

The Hispanic Ballad in the modern oral tradition can be characterized as essentially a women’s genre, and much recent work has focused on the determination of the ‘woman’s voice’. This article studies the woman’s voice literally, focusing on texts from the Eastern Sephardic branch of Hispanic balladry in which women protagonists are given the last word. This conservative tradition provides an excellent subject for study, with plentiful texts, including those collected during the author’s fieldwork. At the heart of the article is a microanalysis of the endings of texts of three ballads that feature strong women, Silvana, El forzador and El robo de Dina. Findings show that the singers have manipulated the ballad ending to give the female protagonist the authoritative last word, making use in so doing of effective closural devices to amplify the message