Silent Reading and the Birth of the Narrator

AvElspeth Jajdelska

Inbunden, Engelska, 2007

Del i serien Studies in Book and Print Culture

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Beskrivning

Although there is abundant evidence that silent reading existed in antiquity, the question remains as to when it became widespread. Silent Reading and the Birth of the Narrator asserts that, due to a rise in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries in the number of parents who could afford to let their children read freely, widely, and for prolonged periods, an entire generation grew into fluent, silent readers in the later 1700s. At that point in time, the reader ceased to be a mouthpiece of the writer, becoming instead a silent hearer of an imagined writer's words.Elspeth Jajdelska uses historical, linguistic, and literary evidence to discuss the reorientation of the text and reader towards one another. She specifically investigates changes in punctuation, sentence structure, and letter and diary writing in the period to illuminate the emergence of a new prose style and the birth of the narrator. Unique to Jajdelska's study is the consideration of silent reading as something that explains changes in literary history. She also incorporates new insights on the history of reading, the novel, the diary, and the English language, using rigorous linguistic analysis and evidence drawn from the study of psychology. Based on a wealth of compelling arguments, Silent Reading and the Birth of the Narrator is an important addition to literary studies, eighteenth-century history, and book and print culture.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2007-12-29
Mått:160 x 237 x 22 mm
Vikt:500 g
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Serie:Studies in Book and Print Culture
Antal sidor:256
Förlag:University of Toronto Press
ISBN:9780802093646

Utforska kategorier

Litteraturvetenskap inom Skönlitteratur
Litteraturteori inom Skönlitteratur

Mer om författaren

Elspeth Jajdelska is a lecturer in English Studies at the University of Strathclyde.

Recensioner i media

"This book will undoubtedly lead scholars to hear anew, see anew, and think anew about the precise elements that make enlightenment prose seem, to us, so enlightened and to explain what is 'alien' about earlier prose in more sympathetic ways."- Shef Rogers, Script & Print "There is much to admire in the wide ranging scholarship of Silent Reading and the Birth of the Narrator. Jajdelska explains linguistics clearly enough for the non-specialist to understand them. I found myself wanting to hear more of Jajdelska's thoughts and thinking in a way I never had before about that phrase 'hear more.'"- Sarah Jordan, Eighteenth-Century Fiction