The history of reading
Wallace Kirsop
8 or 12 points
* One two-hour seminar per week
* Second semester
* Clayton
Objectives On completion of this subject students should have gained an understanding of the complexity and diversity of reading as an activity, familiarity with the history of elementary education and training in literate skills, awareness of the different methods used to examine reading and readers in earlier periods and some sensitivity to the theoretical issues involved in this branch of an expanding discipline devoted to the history of books.
Synopsis The subject will look at the diverse approaches taken to reading practices by historians of books. Its object is to promote understanding of the social and cultural context of literature. Considerable emphasis will be put on the analysis and evaluation of primary sources of various kinds. The topics to be treated include reading and writing before the invention of printing from movable type; the measurement of literacy; chapbooks and popular literature; intensive/extensive reading; circulating libraries in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; newspaper and magazine serials. Some reference will be made throughout to other languages and cultures, especially the English-speaking world. A collection of documents in French (primary and secondary) will be prepared for sale by the department. This will include extensive suggestions for reading on each topic.
Assessment (8 points) Seminar paper (2000 words): 30%
* Research
essay (5000 words): 70%
Assessment (12 points) Two seminar papers (2000 words each): 20% each
* Research essay (5000 words): 60%
Prescribed texts
Chartier R L'Ordre des livres. Lecteurs, auteurs, bibliothèques en Europe entre XIVe et XVIIIe siècles Alinéa
Parent-Lardeur F Les Cabinets de lecture. La lecture publique à Paris sous la Restauration Payot
Thiesse A-M Le Roman du quotidien: lecteurs et lectures populaires à la Belle Epoque Le Chemin vert
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