Making the modern reader : cultural mediation in early modern literary anthologies / Barbara M. Benedict.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Benedict, Barbara M.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English literature--18th century--History and criticism--Theory, etc.

English literature.

English literature--Early modern, 1500-1700--History and criticism--Theory, etc.

Literature publishing--Great Britain--History--18th century.

Literature publishing.

Literature publishing--Great Britain--History--17th century.

Books and reading--Great Britain--History--18th century.

Books and reading.

Books and reading--Great Britain--History--17th century.

Editing--Great Britain--History--18th century.

Editing.

Editing--Great Britain--History--17th century.

Literature and anthropology--Great Britain.

Literature and anthropology.

Canon (Literature).

History.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

252 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 1996.

Summary:

Making the Modern Reader, the first full treatment of the early modern anthology, is in part a history of the London printing trade as well as of the professionalization of criticism. Benedict thoroughly documents the historical redefinition of the reader: once a member of a communal literary culture, the reader became private and introspective, morally and culturally shaped by choices in reading. She argues that eighteenth-century collections promised the reader that culture could be acquired through the absorption of literary values. This process of cultural education appealed to a middle class seeking to become discriminating consumers of art. By addressing this neglected genre, Benedict contributes a new perspective on the tension between popular and high culture, between the common reader and the elite. This book will interest scholars working in cultural studies and those studying non-canonical texts as well as eighteenth-century literature in general.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [229]-242) and index.

ISBN:

0691025789

OCLC:

33983643