1st Edition
Writing and Society Literacy, Print and Politics in Britain 1590-1660
Writing and Society is a stunning exploration of the relationship between the growth in popular literacy and the development of new readerships and the authors addressing them. It is the first single volume to provide a year-by-year chronology of political events in relation to cultural production.
This overview of debates in literary critical theory and historiography includes facsimile pages with commentary from the most influential books of the period. The author describes and analyses:
* the development of literacy by status, gender and region in Britain
* structures of patronage and censorship
* the fundamental role of the publishing industry
* the relation between elite literary and popular cultures
* and the remarkable growth of female literacy and publication.
Biography
Nigel Wheale lectures in English Studies at Anglia Polytechnic University. He is co-editor of Shakespeare in the Changing Curriculum (1991) and The Postmodern Arts.
'[This] interdisciplinary study makes an excellent introduction to the period, and a useful overview for those who have tilled these fields. The book is well organised and clearly written and should find a following among students of both English and History.' - David Cressy, Ecclesiastical History
