Reading and the Making of Time in the Eighteenth Century Christina Lupton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lupton, Christina, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Time--Psychological aspects--History.

Time.

Book industries and trade--Europe--History--18th century.

Book industries and trade.

Books and reading--Social aspects--History.

Books and reading.

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

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 199 pages)

Manufacture:

Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2018

Place of Publication:

Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018.

Summary:

"The idea that there is a relation between media and time is a familiar one. It is often said that digital technologies have quickened the pace at which we consume information in the modern world. In Christina Lupton's Reading and the Making of Time in the Eighteenth Century, she looks back to the eighteenth century to demonstrate the ways in which the emerging print culture and modes of reading and writing affected the experience and understanding of time. Placing canonical works by Jane Austen, Elizabeth Inchbald, Henry Fielding, and Samuel Johnson alongside those of lesser known authors and readers, Lupton approaches books as objects that are good at attracting particular forms of attention. In contrast to the digital interfaces of our own moment and the newspapers and pamphlets read during the period, books are rarely seen as shaping or keeping modern time. However, Lupton argues that books are often put down and picked up at regular times, they are leafed through as well as read sequentially, and they are handed on as objects designed to bridge distances. In showing how discourse itself engages with these material practices, Lupton makes the case that reading is something to be studied textually as well as historically" -- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: when do we read?

The shortness of time; The tense of reading literature as resistance; The difference time makes; Media history as literary method

Time divided

No difference

Talbot's lack of time

Breaking the weekly round

Some Sunday readers

Sir Charles comes and goes

Joining up time

Re-reading for happiness

Slow translation

Grenville's reading journals

Lifetimes of reading

Other times

Reading in the field

Linear and random access

Literature and contingency

Amelia's beginning with the end

Sidney Bidulph and the twice told marriage

The Griffiths' marriage by the book

Time to come

Stockpiling

Romantic media

A simple story's reading comes later

Godwin's future is now

Hard cover truths

You can't skip pages

Coda: academic time.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-4214-2577-7

OCLC:

1044767950