Reading Revolution Research Articles

Williams, David. The Communion of the Book: Milton and the Humanist Revolution in Reading

Williams, David. The Communion of the Book: Milton and the Humanist Revolution in Reading

:The Communion of the Book: Milton and the Humanist Revolution in Reading

:<i>The Communion of the Book: Milton and the Humanist Revolution in Reading</i>

The Witch in Flight

The Witch in Flight

The Consumer Revolution, 1650–1800 by Michael Kwass

This book presents itself as a critical overview of the historical literature about the emergence of a consumer society in Europe and its colonial appendages during the period from 1650 to 1800. Since the groundbreaking work of McKendrick, who in 1982 identified a “consumer revolution” in this era—albeit one confined to Britain—this theme has attracted the attention of multiple historians in many countries who have both deepened our knowledge of the dynamic material world of this era and proposed explanations for its emergence and interpretations of its meaning.1 Kwass’ synthesis, which introduces readers to what is now a vast literature, seeks to identify the places where earlier interpreters have fallen short, proposing an agenda for a history of consumption that satisfies current requirements.Kwass interweaves two approaches to his topic. He begins and ends by treating the consumer revolution as a product of political and economic forces. He claims that the topic is important today because consumption is at the root of contemporary society’s most pressing problems, most notably global warming, income inequality, and racism. In his view, it is no accident that consumption is the source of so many evils today, given its creation at the intersection of imperialism and slavery. This fatal synergy “increased the influx of low-priced consumer goods into Europe,” which “is now seen as central to the consumer revolution” (73). The consumer society of the modern world has a lot to answer for, both in the circumstances of its birth and in its contemporary consequences. Kwass wants to convince readers that it should be brought to an end and replaced with ethical consumption practices (222).But, to return to Kwass’ historical topic, through which channels and which chains of causation did an influx of low-priced goods produce a revolution in consumer behavior in societies where, as Kwass notes, real wages did not rise and most people struggled to survive? Furthermore, by what standard was this influx “low priced”? Such claims require more rigorous forms of analysis than Kwass provides; his discussion tends to float on the surface of things.Fortunately, most of the book is not actually about external, supply-side shocks to Europe’s Early Modern economy. The bulk of the book is a fairly conventional discussion of selected aspects of the consumer cultures of the long eighteenth century, with particular attention paid to the elite material world of ancien régime France. Four of the book’s seven substantive chapters delve into the novel retail venues of the time, as well as the salons, cafes, and public promenades frequented by elite consumers. They also explore the so-called “reading revolution” of the age of Enlightenment and the uses of consumer goods in furthering the revolutionary movements of the age on both sides of the Atlantic.These chapters are all well referenced and well argued. The high point is chapter 4, in which Kwass discusses the cultural meaning of consumption. He begins with the premise that “there is no innate propensity to consume.” Therefore, “it is important to explore the cultural contexts in which meanings are forged and desires take shape” (99). “Consumption has a history” (4)—a history that accelerated in the long eighteenth century, tightly linked to the Enlightenment project. The consumer revolution of this age, which constituted an important step on the road to modernity, led directly to the creation of today’s universal consumer culture. Kwass might have elaborated more about the interrelationships to which he alludes between consumption, enlightenment, revolution, and the shaping of desires.Consumer behavior as a historical agent is not an easy topic for academic analysis, perhaps because it seems so obvious to us. We are all consumers, and we all have doubts and anxieties about our consumption choices. Indeed, consumption is the locus of everyday politics for most people today. Kwass is correct to claim that a historical analysis of how modern consumer society emerged is essential to understanding the options that now stand before us. Unfortunately, two distinct strands of analysis are essayed in this volume without being brought to satisfactory conclusions.

The Library of Varlaam Shyshatsky in the Context of a ‘Reading Revolution’ in the Ukrainian Lands (Second Half of the 18th – Early 19th Centuries)

Varlaam Shyshatsky (1750-1821) was a prominent figure in the Russian Orthodox Church. In this article, the author’s focus is on his personal library – one of the most substantial book collections in Eastern Europe in the second half of the 18th and early 19th centuries, which has never been analyzed before. The article not only analyzes the composition of Varlaam Shyshatsky’s library, but also compares this collection with the personal libraries of other figures belonging to the same social group. The analysis is grounded in the broad context of the history of reading and book culture in Europe. Based on a number of criteria, it is concluded that significant changes in the culture of reading took place in the Ukrainian lands of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 18th century – first and foremost the emergence of ‘extensive’ reading and development of a number of new cultural practices among the ‘enlightened elite’. The composition of the library of Varlaam Shyshatsky also attests to the cultural uniqueness of the region and argues in favor of the thesis about the existence of a ‘Ukrainian Enlightenment’ as a phenomenon with national and regional specifics of its own.

Notes on Contributors

Notes on Contributors

Miscue Analysis and a Reading Revolution

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RESULTS OF COGNITIVE AND NON-COGNITIVE RESEARCH OF FIRST-GRADERS IN ALMATY

Reading is a way of translating and mastering socio-cultural information embodied in a certain cultural text. The authors note that the purpose of reading is to obtain and process written information. At the beginning of the third Millennium, more and more people are talking about the third revolution in reading, associated with the digitization of text and the arrival of hypertext. Primary school is a special stage in a child's life. It is associated with the formation of the basics of the student's ability to learn and the ability to organize their activities. It is reading skills that will provide a younger student with the opportunity to independently acquire new knowledge, and in the future will create a basis for self-education. Therefore, the authors focus on the "Vocabulary" Block, which contains 16 tasks aimed at evaluating the vocabulary of a (mostly passive) child. Clearly shown in tabular form are the following data: Vocabulary, knowledge of letters, Mechanical reading of text, reading and understanding of text.

Tracing the History of the Novel as a Genre in Turkey (1908–1940)

This article emerged as a response to the lack of discussion within the fields of book and reading history of the position of translation and translators. It examines the pioneering role played by translation in the literary market in Turkey between 1908 and 1940, by problematizing the relationship between translation and the indigenous production of novels. This study poses specific questions on the dynamics of the literary market: What was published in these years? In what form were these texts published? What were the strategies and policies adopted by publishing houses between 1908 and 1940? What kinds of changes occurred in publishing and reading practices after the change of script and the Alphabet Reform? What was the role of translation in the ‘reading revolution’, defined by the emergence of mass literacy and the proliferation of materials? The answers to these questions will be presented through the scrutiny of a wide variety of sources. Data from bibliographies, booksellers' catalogues and advertisements published in newspapers and magazines will be analysed using the distant reading strategy of book historians.

Reading in Ukrainian: the working class and mass literature in early Soviet Ukraine

ABSTRACTThis article examines the working-class audience in Soviet Ukraine and the changes in its reading appetites during the 1920s. Under the Soviet nationalities policy of korenizatsiia introduced in 1923, the print-runs of Ukrainian-language literary products increased significantly. Nonetheless, as this article argues, those numerous publications often did not reach Ukrainian readers and if they did, they could hardly satisfy the interest appetites of an ever-growing Ukrainian audience. As the book reviews collected in the second half of the 1920s showed, the worker readers were interested in a certain type of literature – entertaining, easy to comprehend, dealing with contemporary issues and characters – that was not yet available in Ukrainian. Nevertheless, once that literature began to emerge in the late 1920s, the interest in contemporary books in Ukrainian increased. By examining every aspect of reading in Ukrainian – production, dissemination and consumption of the printed word – this article highlights the decisive role of Soviet readership in determining future official Soviet Ukrainian literature. The case of Soviet Ukraine emphasizes regional specifics and introduces an important language component to the Bolshevik reading revolution of the 1920s to early 1930s, largely ignored in the scholarship.

Practices and Technologies across Two Reading Revolutions: Reading the Eighteenth Century into the Twenty-First

Practices and Technologies across Two Reading Revolutions: Reading the Eighteenth Century into the Twenty-First

Alan R. H. Baker, A French reading revolution? The Development, Distribution and Cultural Significance of Bibliothèques populaires, 1860-1890, Cambridge, Historical Geography research group, 2018

Alan R. H. Baker, A French reading revolution? The Development, Distribution and Cultural Significance of Bibliothèques populaires, 1860-1890, Cambridge, Historical Geography research group, 2018

Kitoks požiūris į eilinį anglų skaitytoją: įvadas į auditorijų istoriją

[full article and abstract in Lithuanian; abstract in English]&#x0D; As a genre, the working-class autobiography originates around 1800 – here too the reading revolution marked a watershad, when common readers began to write about themselves. And they are often wonderfully forthcoming about their reading experiences – not only what they read, but how they comprehended and reacted to their reading. These sources open up a new scholarly frontier. They will make possible a third generation of reading history – a historyof audiences, which would reverse the usual perspective of intellectual historiography. It would first define a mass audience, then determine its cultural diet, and ultimately measure the collective response of that audience not only to particular works of literature, but also to education, religion, art, and any other cultural activity. Whereas reception histories have generally traced the responses of professional intellectuals (literary and social critics, academics, clergymen),audience histories would focus on the common reader – defined as any reader who did not read books for a living. The British working-class reader happens to be my subject, but this essay offers general encouragement and advice for the study of common readers in all classes and all nations. It illustrates some of the questions a history of audiences could tackle, and points out the methodological problems it may involve.

Sparking a Reading Revolution: Results of Early Literacy Interventions in Egypt and Jordan.

This article examines the effects of two early grade reading interventions in two Arabic-speaking contexts (Egypt and Jordan), developed in partnership with ministries of education. The interventions relied on similar research bases for improving reading instruction in Arabic. In Egypt, the results of a 166-school pilot led to the national scale-up of the Early Grade Reading Program for more than 4 million children in grades 1-3. Informed by Egypt's experience, a demonstration effort in 43 schools led to a national rollout in Jordan's 2,651 public primary schools and the creation of a remediation program. We reflect on the conditions that influenced the pilot and scale-up outcomes given the commitments made to "inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all" under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Why You Can’t Teach United States History without American Indians

Why You Can’t Teach United States History without American Indians emerged from the symposium of the same name at the Newberry Library in May 2013. The authors, though mainly historians, represent an interdisciplinary group committed to getting American history college instructors to “recast their survey history classes” toward the centrality of American Indians to US history (1). The editors intend that the work will “offer college teachers a toolbox of articles to help them transform their approach” (2). To this end, the book’s three parts offer two main types of essays: historiographic critiques and informative pieces that offer topics for consideration in survey courses.Part 1, “U.S. History to 1877,” consists of two critiques and seven topical presentations. The two critical essays decry the absence of Native polities in maps historically and presently in textbooks—unless, that is, they depict the reservation period, thereby creating a “declension narrative” at odds with the agency of Native nations (22–23). Moreover, the preponderant absence of Indians in college textbooks leads to neglect of the story of contention for homeland and of dispossession that also should reveal Native survival and sovereignty. Textbook maps require revision highlighting “Indian presence and possession” to “be more accurate as well as a superior teaching tool” (71).The Indian-focused topical pieces in part 1 include three describing historical processes and four describing events. The process articles call for greater recognition of Indian history in the North Atlantic trade conducted in the sixteenth century, in the dislocation caused by the Doctrine of Discovery and Manifest Destiny, and in slavery both as slaves and as owners. The articles featuring events explain the importance of looking at Indians in Bacon’s Rebellion, the California gold rush, and the Civil War and at women playing roles in the American Revolution. These essays go beyond victimization and project Native agency.Part 2, “U.S. History since 1877,” possesses a greater balance of three critiques and four topical essays. The critiques explain that textbooks should add diplomacy and survivability to treatment of the western Indian wars. Also, textbooks would better present Native history by “positioning the American Indian self-determination movement in the era of civil rights” and by positioning the struggle for American Indian religious freedom alongside the “larger story of religious resurgence in America” (197, 227). Two of the topical considerations delve into the reading revolution in Native America and the use of primary sources to analyze Native participation in the New Deal. The other topical considerations cover the more general topics of Indian movement to cities and the impact on Indian Country of the power consumption that has fueled suburbanization.Part 3, “Reconceptualizing the Narrative,” comprises three critical essays. The concept of teaching American history with a colonialism theme pervades two of the articles. The first maintains that settler colonialism keeps Native Americans central to the narrative. The second explains the usefulness of a focus on imperialism and the indigenous response to it for viewing American history with a global comparative perspective. The third notes that typical surveys omit Native sovereignty as part of the federalism experience and calls for rectifying this omission to generate a more complete study.This book makes a definitive case for thorough treatment of American Indian history in the survey narrative. College instructors who already draw on this history will want to recommend the text to colleagues who do not. Secondary teachers also should find it relevant. The critiques prove useful both for framing instruction and for incorporating historiographic analysis in the classroom. The topical essays provide subjects for enriched study. Some essays are more compelling than others, but all warrant consideration with respect to teaching the survey. The very gathering of these essays under a clear title calling for inclusion of American Indians in survey courses bears historiographic significance. One of the book’s editors, Jean M. O’Brien, provides an apt conclusion: “The fundamental truth is that, of course, you can teach U.S. history without Indians—it happens all the time, [but] you shouldn’t teach U.S. history without Indians . . . if you want to get the story right” (115).

Multimodality as an Authorial Competency

The future of the book has been the subject of contentious discussion and debate for decades. As concepts and definitions of ‘reading’ and ‘writing’ continue to evolve, the general concept of literacy in a participatory culture is undergoing a paradigm shift. The subsequent revolution in reading will require examination by authors—particularly those who write for the generations of young adults (YAs) born into, and consumed by, technology—of the increasing demand for multimodal textual experiences, so that they may diversify their writing skill set and remain relevant to the demographic for whom they write.

Amazon, or the Modern Prometheus: How the Kindle is Firing Up a Reading Revolution, and Why the Status Quo is Resisting

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Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Reading Revolution: Race, Literacy, Childhood, and Fiction, 1851–1911 by Barbara Hochman, and: Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights by Robin Bernstein (review)

Reviewed by: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Reading Revolution: Race, Literacy, Childhood, and Fiction, 1851–1911 by Barbara Hochman, and: Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights by Robin Bernstein E. Wyn James Barbara Hochman, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Reading Revolution: Race, Literacy, Childhood, and Fiction, 1851–1911. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2011. xviii + 377 pp. Robin Bernstein, Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights. New York: New York University Press, 2011. xii + 308 pp. The “Uncle Tom” industry shows no signs of slowing down, with a steady stream of books and articles flowing off the production line. Perhaps that was inevitable [End Page 173] during the two hundredth anniversary of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s birth in 2011, a year which saw not only the publication of David S. Reynolds’s masterly Mightier than the Sword: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Battle for America, and his introduction to the reissue of the “Splendid Edition” of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, but also the two substantial and stimulating volumes under review here. In her preface, Barbara Hochman describes her volume as “first and last a book about reading in context” (xi). It explores the changes in the reception and the cultural meaning of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (UTC), and “ongoing changes in reading habits and print culture more broadly” (xi), between the appearance of its first installment in the abolitionist weekly, The National Era, in June 1851 and the centenary of Stowe’s birth in 1911. Hochman draws on a wide range of sources, including prefaces, reviews, letters, diaries, marginalia, advertisements, and illustrations, and examines the multiple forms in which Stowe’s novel appeared: as newspaper installments, illustrated volumes, and adaptations for children. Her book is an important contribution to the history of reading, a field of study that has flourished increasingly in recent decades. Hochman explains in her introduction that in the early stages of this “return of the reader” in the 1970s and 1980s — a period which also saw a significant revival of interest in UTC — the “reader” was a theoretical construct “implied” by the text itself and requiring “neither historical specificity nor an interest in individual readers” (8). This changed with the advent of the “new historicism,” which “fueled a growing desire to reconstruct literary meanings and reading habits of the past” (8). However, as Hochman notes, there are tensions inherent in this juxtaposition of “text” and “reader” which raise questions regarding the autonomy of the reader and whether “meaning is a function of the reader or the text” (9) — perhaps “artifact” might be better than “text” here, since “meaning” and “reader response” involve not only the verbal text and illustrative material, but also the physical appearance of the artifact (size, layout, typography, binding, etc.). Incidentally, this underlines the importance of preserving such artifacts, so that texts may be studied in their original contexts; for while one welcomes wholeheartedly the wide accessibility of texts facilitated by the digital revolution, when it comes to digital copies versus original materials, the policy should most certainly be “both/and” and not “either/or” (see, for example, Tanselle). Barbara Hochman’s approach is to combine an emphasis on both reader and text, mediating between them rather than choosing one over the other (9). In her first chapter, she indicates one of the reasons why UTC engendered passionate and profound emotions in its readers from the start1 by contrasting Stowe’s work with the general content of The National Era, the newspaper in which it first appeared [End Page 174] in installments. The Era was unusual amongst abolitionist periodicals in the prominence it gave to fiction. Ironically, that fiction provided respite for the paper’s readers by avoiding the subject of slavery. Furthermore, in the factual content of the newspaper, fugitive slaves tended to be described briefly in distant, abstract, stereotypical terms, rather than depicted in ways that would elicit sympathy. In contrast, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel facilitates an emotional identification by portraying black slaves in concrete terms as fully human with the same thoughts, feelings and desires as her white readers. In her second chapter, Hochman focuses on one particular...

Study of How Experience Involvement Affects Users’ Continuance Intention to Use Mobile Reading

Abstract With the rapid development of mobile internet and the continuous replacement of new smart phones, the advancement of we-media age, and advent of the era of 4G, reading revolution has opened. This paper is to study which factors affect users’ continuance intention. We discussed the relationship between experience involvement, subjective norms, and the dimensions of perceived value as well as users’ continuance intention. The results show that the model which this paper put forward could effectively explain the hypothesizes, and this paper mainly draws the following conclusions: subjective norm significantly affect experience involvement; on one hand, experience involvement significantly and directly affect users’ continuance intention, and on the other hand, indirectly affect users’ continuance intention by significantly affect the users’ perceived usefulness, perceived pleasure and perceived cost; experience involvement can’t significantly affect users’ perceived image enhancement. We suggest the mobile reading providers pay more attention to the free experience process, increasing its convenience, enriching its content and rationalizing its cost. And they should also optimize the mobile reading to improve users’ perceived image enhancement. Mobile reading providers should let users more involved to achieve value co-creation.

“Uncle Tom’s Cabin” And the Reading Revolution: Race, Literacy, Childhood, and Fiction, 1851-1911 Word by Word: Emancipation and the Act of Writing Fever Reading: Affect and Reading Badly in the Early American Public Sphere Bodies and Books: Reading and the Fantasy of Communion in Nineteenth-Century America

Book Review| June 01 2014 “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” And the Reading Revolution: Race, Literacy, Childhood, and Fiction, 1851-1911 Word by Word: Emancipation and the Act of Writing Fever Reading: Affect and Reading Badly in the Early American Public Sphere Bodies and Books: Reading and the Fantasy of Communion in Nineteenth-Century America “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and the Reading Revolution: Race, Literacy, Childhood, and Fiction, 1851-1911. By Hochman, Barbara. 2011. Amherst: Univ. of Massachusetts Press. xv, 377 pp.$28.95.Word by Word: Emancipation and the Act of Writing. By Hager, Christopher. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press. 2013. 311 pp.$39.95.Fever Reading: Affect and Reading Badly in the Early American Public Sphere. By Millner, Michael. Durham: Univ. of New Hampshire Press. 2012. xxii, 188 pp. Cloth, $85.00; paper, $35.00; e-book, $29.99.Bodies and Books: Reading and the Fantasy of Communion in Nineteenth-Century America. By Silverman, Gillian. Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press. 2012. xiii, 226 pp.$55.00. Janet Dean Janet Dean Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google American Literature (2014) 86 (2): 397–400. https://doi.org/10.1215/00029831-2647054 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Janet Dean; “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” And the Reading Revolution: Race, Literacy, Childhood, and Fiction, 1851-1911 Word by Word: Emancipation and the Act of Writing Fever Reading: Affect and Reading Badly in the Early American Public Sphere Bodies and Books: Reading and the Fantasy of Communion in Nineteenth-Century America. American Literature 1 June 2014; 86 (2): 397–400. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00029831-2647054 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll JournalsAmerican Literature Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. © 2014 by Duke University Press2014 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: Book Reviews You do not currently have access to this content.