William May
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199583379
- eISBN:
- 9780191723193
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199583379.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter explores Smith's own reading practice to help explain her playful and often hostile relationship with tradition. It focuses on her troubled relationship with her sister, an English ...
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This chapter explores Smith's own reading practice to help explain her playful and often hostile relationship with tradition. It focuses on her troubled relationship with her sister, an English literature scholar, and considers its impact on both her attitudes to reading and her literary tastes. It traces this sibling antagonism through to her 1920s reading notebooks and eventually to her own book reviews, which often served as defensive gestures towards her projected reading public. It concludes by noting Smith's deliberate concealment of her own literary influences in essays, interviews, and public appearances.Less
This chapter explores Smith's own reading practice to help explain her playful and often hostile relationship with tradition. It focuses on her troubled relationship with her sister, an English literature scholar, and considers its impact on both her attitudes to reading and her literary tastes. It traces this sibling antagonism through to her 1920s reading notebooks and eventually to her own book reviews, which often served as defensive gestures towards her projected reading public. It concludes by noting Smith's deliberate concealment of her own literary influences in essays, interviews, and public appearances.
Chris Stamatakis
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199644407
- eISBN:
- 9780191738821
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199644407.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature, Poetry
This introductory chapter studies the idea of verbal turning in Wyatt’s writing—both as a theme within his texts, and as rescriptive traces that colour the material condition of those texts. Wyatt ...
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This introductory chapter studies the idea of verbal turning in Wyatt’s writing—both as a theme within his texts, and as rescriptive traces that colour the material condition of those texts. Wyatt theorises two key principles of verbal transformation: ‘misreporting’ and ‘difference’. Even slight or innocuous acts of rescription—whether by Wyatt’s own hand or by his scribes, compilers and readers—can markedly transform meaning. This textual mutability not only frustrates biographical identifications, but also forces us to understand Wyatt’s authorship through the scriptive interventions of copyists and editors, as his verse is multifariously handled during its transmission and reception. Consideration is made of the different material textualities that characterise Wyatt’s manuscript volumes, and of the fascination with answer poetry in these collections. The chapter also examines the interplay of copying and copia (verbal abundance) and the importance of collational reading practices in the early sixteenth century.Less
This introductory chapter studies the idea of verbal turning in Wyatt’s writing—both as a theme within his texts, and as rescriptive traces that colour the material condition of those texts. Wyatt theorises two key principles of verbal transformation: ‘misreporting’ and ‘difference’. Even slight or innocuous acts of rescription—whether by Wyatt’s own hand or by his scribes, compilers and readers—can markedly transform meaning. This textual mutability not only frustrates biographical identifications, but also forces us to understand Wyatt’s authorship through the scriptive interventions of copyists and editors, as his verse is multifariously handled during its transmission and reception. Consideration is made of the different material textualities that characterise Wyatt’s manuscript volumes, and of the fascination with answer poetry in these collections. The chapter also examines the interplay of copying and copia (verbal abundance) and the importance of collational reading practices in the early sixteenth century.
Arnoud S. Q. Visser
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199765935
- eISBN:
- 9780199895168
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199765935.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter examines book ownership and reading practices of individual readers of Augustine in sixteenth-century Europe. Case studies of private libraries in England and monastic collections in ...
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This chapter examines book ownership and reading practices of individual readers of Augustine in sixteenth-century Europe. Case studies of private libraries in England and monastic collections in Italy reveal the reality of Augustine's dissemination to be far messier than a chronological account of the printing history would suggest. Manuscript reading marks in individual copies confirm the lively variety of ways in which Augustine was read, ranging from pragmatic underlining to emotional responses. These individual reading styles enabled readers to use the same texts for different ends, as is shown in a case study of three formative English theologians, Thomas Cranmer, Peter Martyr Vermigli and William Laud. Their techniques of classifying or historicizing quotations illuminate how readers, regardless of the aims of authors and editors, often pursued their own approach to Augustine in search of confirmation of their religious perspective.Less
This chapter examines book ownership and reading practices of individual readers of Augustine in sixteenth-century Europe. Case studies of private libraries in England and monastic collections in Italy reveal the reality of Augustine's dissemination to be far messier than a chronological account of the printing history would suggest. Manuscript reading marks in individual copies confirm the lively variety of ways in which Augustine was read, ranging from pragmatic underlining to emotional responses. These individual reading styles enabled readers to use the same texts for different ends, as is shown in a case study of three formative English theologians, Thomas Cranmer, Peter Martyr Vermigli and William Laud. Their techniques of classifying or historicizing quotations illuminate how readers, regardless of the aims of authors and editors, often pursued their own approach to Augustine in search of confirmation of their religious perspective.
Lucy Newlyn
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198187110
- eISBN:
- 9780191674631
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198187110.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
Early 19th-century England marks the rise of the reader in a number of distinctive ways. For Chee Dimmock, one of the outstanding characteristics of modernity is that an apparent universalisation of ...
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Early 19th-century England marks the rise of the reader in a number of distinctive ways. For Chee Dimmock, one of the outstanding characteristics of modernity is that an apparent universalisation of reading practices is accompanied by an increasing activity — and thus by a widening gap between the common reader and the expert. This, too, was a feature of modernity apprehended by English writers at the turn of the 18th century, when increasing literacy created a mass-reading audience, but when the rise of professional criticism registered the emergence of a new race of specialist readers. The mutual pressures exerted on writers and their critics, which mounted under the increasingly competitive conditions of periodical culture in the early 19th century were further intensified by this dual consciousness.Less
Early 19th-century England marks the rise of the reader in a number of distinctive ways. For Chee Dimmock, one of the outstanding characteristics of modernity is that an apparent universalisation of reading practices is accompanied by an increasing activity — and thus by a widening gap between the common reader and the expert. This, too, was a feature of modernity apprehended by English writers at the turn of the 18th century, when increasing literacy created a mass-reading audience, but when the rise of professional criticism registered the emergence of a new race of specialist readers. The mutual pressures exerted on writers and their critics, which mounted under the increasingly competitive conditions of periodical culture in the early 19th century were further intensified by this dual consciousness.
Anne E. McLaren
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520231269
- eISBN:
- 9780520927797
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520231269.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter examines the emergence of new reading publics in China during the late Ming Dynasty. It traces the shifting constructions of readers, authors, and editors; the broadening of reading ...
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This chapter examines the emergence of new reading publics in China during the late Ming Dynasty. It traces the shifting constructions of readers, authors, and editors; the broadening of reading practices during this period; and the emergence of an apologia for vernacular print. The chapter discusses the paradigms underlying notions of readers; authors and reading practices, beginning with the standards set by the Neo-Confucian thinker Zhu Xi; and argues that the expanding lexicon for authoring and reading texts was based on a set of suppositions seeking to legitimize vernacular print. It also describes the editorial practices of Yu Xiangdou, who was perhaps the first to write commentary aimed specifically at readers with low educational and literacy levels.Less
This chapter examines the emergence of new reading publics in China during the late Ming Dynasty. It traces the shifting constructions of readers, authors, and editors; the broadening of reading practices during this period; and the emergence of an apologia for vernacular print. The chapter discusses the paradigms underlying notions of readers; authors and reading practices, beginning with the standards set by the Neo-Confucian thinker Zhu Xi; and argues that the expanding lexicon for authoring and reading texts was based on a set of suppositions seeking to legitimize vernacular print. It also describes the editorial practices of Yu Xiangdou, who was perhaps the first to write commentary aimed specifically at readers with low educational and literacy levels.
Melanie V. Dawson and Meredith L. Goldsmith
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780813056043
- eISBN:
- 9780813053813
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813056043.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
Across the period from 1880 to 1930, the processes of rethinking the past can be read as a historical gesture as significant as the consideration of wholly new works of art, resulting in a period of ...
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Across the period from 1880 to 1930, the processes of rethinking the past can be read as a historical gesture as significant as the consideration of wholly new works of art, resulting in a period of experimentation, negotiation, hybridity, and historical dualities. Despite pressures to valorize the modern and thus separate literary eras at the century’s dividing mark, authors from the turn of the century, or the T-20 period, explore their historical legacies as well as anticipatory inscriptions of the new. Calling for a reading practice that encourages both forward and backward glancing, essays collected in this volume attest to the irreducibility of the century’s turn, which can be read as an era of historical complexity rather than as a period shaped by a decisive teleological march into new intellectual territory. Exploring the permeable boundaries and elastic categories of a literary history rich in multiple investments, essays here stress American literature’s navigation of moving boundaries that encompass not only temporal markers but intersecting literary and cultural traditions.Less
Across the period from 1880 to 1930, the processes of rethinking the past can be read as a historical gesture as significant as the consideration of wholly new works of art, resulting in a period of experimentation, negotiation, hybridity, and historical dualities. Despite pressures to valorize the modern and thus separate literary eras at the century’s dividing mark, authors from the turn of the century, or the T-20 period, explore their historical legacies as well as anticipatory inscriptions of the new. Calling for a reading practice that encourages both forward and backward glancing, essays collected in this volume attest to the irreducibility of the century’s turn, which can be read as an era of historical complexity rather than as a period shaped by a decisive teleological march into new intellectual territory. Exploring the permeable boundaries and elastic categories of a literary history rich in multiple investments, essays here stress American literature’s navigation of moving boundaries that encompass not only temporal markers but intersecting literary and cultural traditions.
Geoff Baker
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719080241
- eISBN:
- 9781781701799
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719080241.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter considers how William Blundell constructed his commonplace books Adversaria and Historica. It evaluates the extent to which these commonplace books support the argument that by the end ...
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This chapter considers how William Blundell constructed his commonplace books Adversaria and Historica. It evaluates the extent to which these commonplace books support the argument that by the end of the seventeenth century commonplace authors abandoned the forms expounded in printed guides on structuring commonplace books and exerted autonomy over the style that they employed. It suggests that Blundell did not stick stringently to established methods of commonplacing and he designed a method that suited his purposes and accorded with his reading practice.Less
This chapter considers how William Blundell constructed his commonplace books Adversaria and Historica. It evaluates the extent to which these commonplace books support the argument that by the end of the seventeenth century commonplace authors abandoned the forms expounded in printed guides on structuring commonplace books and exerted autonomy over the style that they employed. It suggests that Blundell did not stick stringently to established methods of commonplacing and he designed a method that suited his purposes and accorded with his reading practice.
Femke Molekamp
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199665402
- eISBN:
- 9780191752193
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199665402.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
This chapter details the structures and materiality of female Bible-reading practices. It examines accounts and examples of diverse modes of female Bible-reading in female autobiographical writing, ...
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This chapter details the structures and materiality of female Bible-reading practices. It examines accounts and examples of diverse modes of female Bible-reading in female autobiographical writing, commonplace books and other religious texts, as well as in exemplary literature directed at women. It shows that women engaged in both linear and non-linear modes of using the Bible. Using these traces of reading, the chapter locates sets of female hermeneutics: for example typological and providential methods of reading and writing. The chapter outlines which books of the Bible women read most intensively and how these reading habits affected female literary production.Less
This chapter details the structures and materiality of female Bible-reading practices. It examines accounts and examples of diverse modes of female Bible-reading in female autobiographical writing, commonplace books and other religious texts, as well as in exemplary literature directed at women. It shows that women engaged in both linear and non-linear modes of using the Bible. Using these traces of reading, the chapter locates sets of female hermeneutics: for example typological and providential methods of reading and writing. The chapter outlines which books of the Bible women read most intensively and how these reading habits affected female literary production.
Katrin Ettenhuber
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199609109
- eISBN:
- 9780191729553
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199609109.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
The poet and preacher John Donne (1572–1631) was one of the most influential authors of early modern England. This book examines his response to an iconic figure in the history of Western religious ...
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The poet and preacher John Donne (1572–1631) was one of the most influential authors of early modern England. This book examines his response to an iconic figure in the history of Western religious thought: Saint Augustine of Hippo (354–430). This book argues that Renaissance culture saw not only a revival of the classics, but was equally indebted to the intellectual and literary legacy of the Church Fathers. The study recovers an Augustinian tradition of interpretation which permeated the religious world of the period, but which has until now been largely overlooked. It presents a comprehensive re-evaluation of Donne's writings, ranging from the poems to less familiar prose works, situates him carefully in the poetic, intellectual, and political contexts which frame his works, and engages with recent developments in both literary and historical studies. This book is the first sustained study of Donne's reading practices, and of the theological sources which shaped his thought. It discovers a range of medieval and early modern texts which transformed the imagination of literary writers in the period but which have been neglected so far: devotional manuals, Scripture commentaries, and religious commonplace books (often in Latin). The study pays close attention to the intellectual and political conditions which informed the reception of Augustine's works, and offers detailed readings of Donne's texts which illuminate the literary aspects of his patristic heritage.Less
The poet and preacher John Donne (1572–1631) was one of the most influential authors of early modern England. This book examines his response to an iconic figure in the history of Western religious thought: Saint Augustine of Hippo (354–430). This book argues that Renaissance culture saw not only a revival of the classics, but was equally indebted to the intellectual and literary legacy of the Church Fathers. The study recovers an Augustinian tradition of interpretation which permeated the religious world of the period, but which has until now been largely overlooked. It presents a comprehensive re-evaluation of Donne's writings, ranging from the poems to less familiar prose works, situates him carefully in the poetic, intellectual, and political contexts which frame his works, and engages with recent developments in both literary and historical studies. This book is the first sustained study of Donne's reading practices, and of the theological sources which shaped his thought. It discovers a range of medieval and early modern texts which transformed the imagination of literary writers in the period but which have been neglected so far: devotional manuals, Scripture commentaries, and religious commonplace books (often in Latin). The study pays close attention to the intellectual and political conditions which informed the reception of Augustine's works, and offers detailed readings of Donne's texts which illuminate the literary aspects of his patristic heritage.
Philip Hardie
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199218035
- eISBN:
- 9780191711534
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199218035.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter explores the history of a certain kind of literary criticism, with a view to raising questions about the origins, uses, and legitimacy of opposition and contrast as ways of constructing ...
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This chapter explores the history of a certain kind of literary criticism, with a view to raising questions about the origins, uses, and legitimacy of opposition and contrast as ways of constructing reading practices. The contrast is that between two authors, Virgil and Ovid.Less
This chapter explores the history of a certain kind of literary criticism, with a view to raising questions about the origins, uses, and legitimacy of opposition and contrast as ways of constructing reading practices. The contrast is that between two authors, Virgil and Ovid.
Yael Segalovitz
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780823280025
- eISBN:
- 9780823281626
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823280025.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter argues that Moses and Monotheism invites its readers to approach it in a state of “evenly-suspended attention,” the mindset that Freud recommends his colleagues practice in the ...
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This chapter argues that Moses and Monotheism invites its readers to approach it in a state of “evenly-suspended attention,” the mindset that Freud recommends his colleagues practice in the therapeutic scene. This method of reading is contrasted with the prominent one in the discipline of literature, namely, close reading. Developed by the Anglo-American New Critics around the time of Moses’ publication, close reading depends on what Freud terms “deliberate attention.” This chapter further demonstrates that reading Moses in a state of evenly-suspended attention is understood by Freud to require an act of faith in one’s unconscious or internal alterity. It concludes with a call for a reevaluation of what a Freudian or psychoanalytic reading is typically understood to mean in the humanities. That is, while Freud is conventionally thought of as the optimal close reader, Moses suggests otherwise.Less
This chapter argues that Moses and Monotheism invites its readers to approach it in a state of “evenly-suspended attention,” the mindset that Freud recommends his colleagues practice in the therapeutic scene. This method of reading is contrasted with the prominent one in the discipline of literature, namely, close reading. Developed by the Anglo-American New Critics around the time of Moses’ publication, close reading depends on what Freud terms “deliberate attention.” This chapter further demonstrates that reading Moses in a state of evenly-suspended attention is understood by Freud to require an act of faith in one’s unconscious or internal alterity. It concludes with a call for a reevaluation of what a Freudian or psychoanalytic reading is typically understood to mean in the humanities. That is, while Freud is conventionally thought of as the optimal close reader, Moses suggests otherwise.
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226469140
- eISBN:
- 9780226469287
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226469287.003.0014
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
This chapter considers bookmarking as involving a wider range of interactions, moving beyond reading to the social lives of books more generally and the marks left as a result of interactions by ...
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This chapter considers bookmarking as involving a wider range of interactions, moving beyond reading to the social lives of books more generally and the marks left as a result of interactions by their everyday users. Many people see such traces and modifications as defacement, but recent scholarship considers the evidentiary value of marks in books, especially marginalia, and what they might tell us about the reading practices of the past. As such, the chapter first emphasizes marking as a materially determined phenomenon, one that has much to tell us about the domestic and social roles of book objects during this period. Second, it considers some examples of the ways that printed books in this period call forth certain kinds of conventional marking practices: not readers' personal reactions but a kind of “fill in the blanks” augmentation or completion of the printed text. Finally, the chapter examines some instances of nineteenth-century bookmarking that emphasize the social, domestic, and commemorative functions of the inscribed codex.Less
This chapter considers bookmarking as involving a wider range of interactions, moving beyond reading to the social lives of books more generally and the marks left as a result of interactions by their everyday users. Many people see such traces and modifications as defacement, but recent scholarship considers the evidentiary value of marks in books, especially marginalia, and what they might tell us about the reading practices of the past. As such, the chapter first emphasizes marking as a materially determined phenomenon, one that has much to tell us about the domestic and social roles of book objects during this period. Second, it considers some examples of the ways that printed books in this period call forth certain kinds of conventional marking practices: not readers' personal reactions but a kind of “fill in the blanks” augmentation or completion of the printed text. Finally, the chapter examines some instances of nineteenth-century bookmarking that emphasize the social, domestic, and commemorative functions of the inscribed codex.
Geoff Baker
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719080241
- eISBN:
- 9781781701799
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719080241.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume, which is about the activities and mental world of William Blundell, a seventeenth-century Catholic gentleman in Lancashire, England. The ...
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This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume, which is about the activities and mental world of William Blundell, a seventeenth-century Catholic gentleman in Lancashire, England. The first part of this book considers the extent to which his public activities corroborate his claims of passive victimhood and the second examines Blundell's reading practices as documented in his commonplace books Adversaria and Historica. This volume also evaluates the extent to which Blundell's reputation was justified by his actions and suggests that he was neither the passive victim nor the entirely loyal subject that he and others have claimed.Less
This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume, which is about the activities and mental world of William Blundell, a seventeenth-century Catholic gentleman in Lancashire, England. The first part of this book considers the extent to which his public activities corroborate his claims of passive victimhood and the second examines Blundell's reading practices as documented in his commonplace books Adversaria and Historica. This volume also evaluates the extent to which Blundell's reputation was justified by his actions and suggests that he was neither the passive victim nor the entirely loyal subject that he and others have claimed.
Helen Groth
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780748669486
- eISBN:
- 9780748695171
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748669486.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This chapter examines the dynamic media environment of Regency London through the lens of three very different convergences between literary and visual media. The first, Jane and Ann Taylor’s Signor ...
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This chapter examines the dynamic media environment of Regency London through the lens of three very different convergences between literary and visual media. The first, Jane and Ann Taylor’s Signor Topsy-Turvy’s Wonderful Magic Lantern emanates from a network of writers that channelled Lockean models of the mind into experimental visual and textual interactions. The second example, Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington’s The Magic Lantern; or, Sketches of Scenes in the Metropolis (1823) enlists the fluid dissolve of one lantern slide into the next to materialise the associative flow of reverie as she wanders through Regency London’s various attractions. The third example is Pierce Egan’s playful alignment of reading and looking through a camera obscura in The True History of Tom and Jerry; or The Day and Night Scenes, of Life in London (1821). Recalling reading Egan as a child, William Makepeace Thackeray described Life in London as an invitation to let his mind wander through the long-gone diversions of Regency London, this chapter reconsiders this response alongside Blessington’s Magic Lantern in the context of an emerging psychological preoccupation with the involuntary aspects of reading, viewing and the mind’s dynamic generation of moving images in states of reverie or dreaming.Less
This chapter examines the dynamic media environment of Regency London through the lens of three very different convergences between literary and visual media. The first, Jane and Ann Taylor’s Signor Topsy-Turvy’s Wonderful Magic Lantern emanates from a network of writers that channelled Lockean models of the mind into experimental visual and textual interactions. The second example, Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington’s The Magic Lantern; or, Sketches of Scenes in the Metropolis (1823) enlists the fluid dissolve of one lantern slide into the next to materialise the associative flow of reverie as she wanders through Regency London’s various attractions. The third example is Pierce Egan’s playful alignment of reading and looking through a camera obscura in The True History of Tom and Jerry; or The Day and Night Scenes, of Life in London (1821). Recalling reading Egan as a child, William Makepeace Thackeray described Life in London as an invitation to let his mind wander through the long-gone diversions of Regency London, this chapter reconsiders this response alongside Blessington’s Magic Lantern in the context of an emerging psychological preoccupation with the involuntary aspects of reading, viewing and the mind’s dynamic generation of moving images in states of reverie or dreaming.
Elena Lombardi
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- June 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198818960
- eISBN:
- 9780191859762
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198818960.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
This chapter explores a more concrete and historicized figure of the woman reader. It explores the forces that make her appear and disappear, and surveys the state of knowledge on medieval female ...
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This chapter explores a more concrete and historicized figure of the woman reader. It explores the forces that make her appear and disappear, and surveys the state of knowledge on medieval female literacy, and the documentary evidence on women readers. It investigates typically female modes of reading (such as the educational, the devotional, and the courtly) and the visual models that were available to vernacular authors to forge their imagined textual interlocutor. It shows how the protagonist of this book is the product of two cultural events within the history of reading and the material culture of the book: the raise of literacy among the laity and women in the years under consideration, and a changed scenario insofar as theories and practices of reading are concerned.Less
This chapter explores a more concrete and historicized figure of the woman reader. It explores the forces that make her appear and disappear, and surveys the state of knowledge on medieval female literacy, and the documentary evidence on women readers. It investigates typically female modes of reading (such as the educational, the devotional, and the courtly) and the visual models that were available to vernacular authors to forge their imagined textual interlocutor. It shows how the protagonist of this book is the product of two cultural events within the history of reading and the material culture of the book: the raise of literacy among the laity and women in the years under consideration, and a changed scenario insofar as theories and practices of reading are concerned.
Jason Lawrence
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719069147
- eISBN:
- 9781781702543
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719069147.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This book offers a comprehensive account of the methods and practice of learning modern languages, particularly Italian, in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England. It suggests that ...
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This book offers a comprehensive account of the methods and practice of learning modern languages, particularly Italian, in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England. It suggests that there is a fundamental connection between these language-learning habits and the techniques for both reading and imitating Italian materials employed by a range of poets and dramatists, such as Daniel, Drummond, Marston and Shakespeare, in this period. The widespread use of bilingual parallel-text instruction manuals from the 1570s onwards, most notably those of the Italian teacher John Florio, highlights the importance of translation in the language-learning process. More advanced students attempt translation exercises from Italian poetry to increase their linguistic fluency, but even beginners are encouraged to use the translations in these manuals as a means of careful parallel reading. This study emphasises the impact of both aspects of language-learning translation on contemporary habits of literary imitation, in its detailed analyses of Daniel's sonnet sequence ‘Delia’ and his pastoral tragicomedies, and Shakespeare's use of Italian materials in Measure for Measure and Othello. By focusing on Shakespeare as a typical language-learner of the period (one who is certainly familiar with Florio's two manuals), it argues that the playwright was clearly influenced by these Italian reading practices.Less
This book offers a comprehensive account of the methods and practice of learning modern languages, particularly Italian, in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England. It suggests that there is a fundamental connection between these language-learning habits and the techniques for both reading and imitating Italian materials employed by a range of poets and dramatists, such as Daniel, Drummond, Marston and Shakespeare, in this period. The widespread use of bilingual parallel-text instruction manuals from the 1570s onwards, most notably those of the Italian teacher John Florio, highlights the importance of translation in the language-learning process. More advanced students attempt translation exercises from Italian poetry to increase their linguistic fluency, but even beginners are encouraged to use the translations in these manuals as a means of careful parallel reading. This study emphasises the impact of both aspects of language-learning translation on contemporary habits of literary imitation, in its detailed analyses of Daniel's sonnet sequence ‘Delia’ and his pastoral tragicomedies, and Shakespeare's use of Italian materials in Measure for Measure and Othello. By focusing on Shakespeare as a typical language-learner of the period (one who is certainly familiar with Florio's two manuals), it argues that the playwright was clearly influenced by these Italian reading practices.
Femke Molekamp
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199665402
- eISBN:
- 9780191752193
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199665402.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
This book provides an account of the uniquely important role of the Bible in the development of female interpretative and literary agency, as well as in the expression of female subjectivity in early ...
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This book provides an account of the uniquely important role of the Bible in the development of female interpretative and literary agency, as well as in the expression of female subjectivity in early modern England. In the later sixteenth, and throughout the seventeenth, century women’s religious writing diversified in genre and entered increasingly into a public literary sphere. The book shows that the Bible was at the heart of female reading culture, and women can be seen to participate in multiple modes of reading it, which, in turn, fostered various kinds of literary writing.The sources used in this book to reconstruct reading practices, and trace their connection to religious writing, are drawn from diverse archives; to include the annotations, biographical writing, commonplace books, letters, treatises, and other literary writings in print and manuscript of both prominent early modern women well known to us, and women who have so far remained obscure. The book argues that the increased circulation of the Bible in English fostered reading practices that enabled a growth in female interpretative and literary agency.Less
This book provides an account of the uniquely important role of the Bible in the development of female interpretative and literary agency, as well as in the expression of female subjectivity in early modern England. In the later sixteenth, and throughout the seventeenth, century women’s religious writing diversified in genre and entered increasingly into a public literary sphere. The book shows that the Bible was at the heart of female reading culture, and women can be seen to participate in multiple modes of reading it, which, in turn, fostered various kinds of literary writing.The sources used in this book to reconstruct reading practices, and trace their connection to religious writing, are drawn from diverse archives; to include the annotations, biographical writing, commonplace books, letters, treatises, and other literary writings in print and manuscript of both prominent early modern women well known to us, and women who have so far remained obscure. The book argues that the increased circulation of the Bible in English fostered reading practices that enabled a growth in female interpretative and literary agency.
Joan Ormrod (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496815118
- eISBN:
- 9781496815156
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496815118.003.0016
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
This chapter examines Jeff Lemire's Trillium (2014) which, like many time travel narratives, reflects ideas of colonialism in the appropriation of territory and time by future scientist, Nika and ...
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This chapter examines Jeff Lemire's Trillium (2014) which, like many time travel narratives, reflects ideas of colonialism in the appropriation of territory and time by future scientist, Nika and British explorer Billy's respective cultures. The paper uses postcolonial theories of writers such as Frantz Fanon to draw parallels between colonial discourses of mapping and language in European voyages of discovery of the 16-20th centuries with that of the cultures of the British Empire and the future remnants of humanity. In his comments on mapping, language and communication, Lemire shows how language and histories are tools of aggression against the Atabithians. Lemire, therefore, proposes alternate reading practices, histories and social orders by playing with the comic form, language and spatiality. In doing so he destabilizes readers’ commonsense perceptions of realism, time and history.Less
This chapter examines Jeff Lemire's Trillium (2014) which, like many time travel narratives, reflects ideas of colonialism in the appropriation of territory and time by future scientist, Nika and British explorer Billy's respective cultures. The paper uses postcolonial theories of writers such as Frantz Fanon to draw parallels between colonial discourses of mapping and language in European voyages of discovery of the 16-20th centuries with that of the cultures of the British Empire and the future remnants of humanity. In his comments on mapping, language and communication, Lemire shows how language and histories are tools of aggression against the Atabithians. Lemire, therefore, proposes alternate reading practices, histories and social orders by playing with the comic form, language and spatiality. In doing so he destabilizes readers’ commonsense perceptions of realism, time and history.
Helen Groth
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780748669486
- eISBN:
- 9780748695171
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748669486.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This chapter provides an overview of the ways in which those in the business of both early and pre-cinematic entertainment often combined literary and visual media in an endeavour to align the moving ...
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This chapter provides an overview of the ways in which those in the business of both early and pre-cinematic entertainment often combined literary and visual media in an endeavour to align the moving images on the screen with the moving images scrolling through the minds of their audiences. Echoing an enduring philosophical tradition of enlisting familiar optical devices to materialise the mechanisms of perception, memory, dreams, and associative streams of consciousness, these convergences between literary and popular visual media invited an analogical interplay between reading and viewing. This chapter considers the ways in which this inter-medial reciprocity aligns with a parallel history of the emergence of a modern psychology that was keen to understand and describe the dynamic processes that generate moving images in the mind, including reading, viewing and dreaming.Less
This chapter provides an overview of the ways in which those in the business of both early and pre-cinematic entertainment often combined literary and visual media in an endeavour to align the moving images on the screen with the moving images scrolling through the minds of their audiences. Echoing an enduring philosophical tradition of enlisting familiar optical devices to materialise the mechanisms of perception, memory, dreams, and associative streams of consciousness, these convergences between literary and popular visual media invited an analogical interplay between reading and viewing. This chapter considers the ways in which this inter-medial reciprocity aligns with a parallel history of the emergence of a modern psychology that was keen to understand and describe the dynamic processes that generate moving images in the mind, including reading, viewing and dreaming.
Daniel Silliman
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190468910
- eISBN:
- 9780190468958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190468910.003.0026
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society, Biblical Studies
Evangelicals imagine the Bible (1) as an object, (2) as having an ideal reader, and (3) as lending itself to therapeutic reading practices. This chapter surveys thirty-three evangelical novels ...
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Evangelicals imagine the Bible (1) as an object, (2) as having an ideal reader, and (3) as lending itself to therapeutic reading practices. This chapter surveys thirty-three evangelical novels published between 2004 and 2014, examining how they represent the Bible. The novels are written and published by evangelicals, and predominantly read by lay evangelicals as well. They reveal the background assumptions a not-insignificant portion of the American public has when approaching the Bible. The study of the evangelical imaginary, it is argued, can usefully supplement studies of beliefs and practices.Less
Evangelicals imagine the Bible (1) as an object, (2) as having an ideal reader, and (3) as lending itself to therapeutic reading practices. This chapter surveys thirty-three evangelical novels published between 2004 and 2014, examining how they represent the Bible. The novels are written and published by evangelicals, and predominantly read by lay evangelicals as well. They reveal the background assumptions a not-insignificant portion of the American public has when approaching the Bible. The study of the evangelical imaginary, it is argued, can usefully supplement studies of beliefs and practices.
