Reading It Wrong (eBook)

An Alternative History of Early Eighteenth-Century Literature

Abigail Williams (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2023
395 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-25234-6 (ISBN)

Infos

How eighteenth-century literature depended on misinterpretationand how this still shapes the way we readReading It Wrong is a new history of eighteenth-century English literature that explores what has been everywhere evident but rarely talked about: the misunderstanding, muddle and confusion of readers of the past when they first met the uniquely elusive writings of the period. Abigail Williams uses the marginal marks and jottings of these readers to show that flawed interpretation has its own historyand its own important role to playin understanding how, why and what we read.Focussing on the first half of the eighteenth century, the golden age of satire, Reading It Wrong tells how a combination of changing readerships and fantastically tricky literature created the perfect grounds for puzzlement and partial comprehension. Through the lens of a history of imperfect reading, we see that many of the period's major worksby writers including Daniel Defoe, Eliza Haywood, Mary Wortley Montagu, Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swiftboth generated and depended upon widespread misreading. Being foxed by a satire, coded fiction or allegory was, like Wordle or the cryptic crossword, a form of entertainment, and perhaps a group sport. Rather than worrying that we don't have all the answers, we should instead recognize the cultural importance of not knowing.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 19.9.2023
• Zusatzinfo: 13 b/w illus.
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Essays / Feuilleton
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft
• Schlagworte: Abigail Williams • Alexander Pope • Alternative history • American Literature • British Literature • Critical analysis • cultural importance of not knowing • Daniel Defoe • Early Eighteenth-Century Literature • eighteenth-century literature • Eliza Haywood • fantastically tricky literature • Fiction • flawed interpretation has its own history • golden age of satire • History • how we read • imperfect reading • Jonathan Swift • jottings of readers • Literature • marginal marks • Mary Wortley Montagu • misinterpretation of eighteenth-century literature • Princeton University Press • quirky • Reading It Wrong: An Alternative History of Early Eighteenth-Century Literature • social life of books • the importance of interpretation • through the lens of a history of imperfect reading
• ISBN-10: 0-691-25234-3 / 0691252343
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-25234-6 / 9780691252346