Writing and Society is a stunning exploration of the relationship between the growth in popular literacy and the development of new readerships and the authors addressing them. It is the first single volume to provide a year-by-year chronology of political events in relation to cultural production.
This overview of debates in literary critical theory and historiography includes facsimile pages with commentary from the most influential books of the period. The author describes and analyses:
* the development of literacy by status, gender and region in Britain
* structures of patronage and censorship
* the fundamental role of the publishing industry
* the relation between elite literary and popular cultures
* and the remarkable growth of female literacy and publication.
Autorentext
Nigel Wheale lectures in English Studies at Anglia Polytechnic University. He is co-editor of Shakespeare in the Changing Curriculum (1991) and The Postmodern Arts.
Inhalt
Chapter 1 'Paper I Make My Friend And Mind'S True Glass'; Chapter 2 Status and Literacy; Chapter 3 'Towardness'; Chapter 4 'Mechanics in the Suburbs of Literature'; Chapter 5 Censorship And State Formation; Chapter 6 'Penny Merriments, Penny Godlinesses'; Chapter 7 'Dressed Up With The Flowers Of A Library'; Chapter 8 'The Power Of Self At Such Overflowing Times'; Chapter 9 A Constant Register Of Public Facts 1589-1662;