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  • © 2018

Representations of Book Culture in Eighteenth-Century English Imaginative Writing

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Explores the impact of the development of media technologies on social and cultural life: the anxieties caused by the transformation of Britain into literate society
  • Examines the hopes and fears awoken by the popularisation of print
  • Analyses the contribution of literary texts to the definition of modern authorship, the conceptualisation of reading, and the description of the roles patrons and booksellers as mediators between writers and readers

Part of the book series: New Directions in Book History (NDBH)

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-vii
  2. Introduction

    • Joanna Maciulewicz
    Pages 1-19
  3. Script, Print and the Materiality of Texts

    • Joanna Maciulewicz
    Pages 79-119
  4. The Authors’ Search for Creative Autonomy

    • Joanna Maciulewicz
    Pages 175-228
  5. Conclusion

    • Joanna Maciulewicz
    Pages 277-283
  6. Back Matter

    Pages 285-288

About this book

This book is a contribution to the new field of literary studies which is informed by book history and takes interest in the intersection of the ideal and material aspects of literature. It studies the ways eighteenth-century English novels, plays and poems illustrated the changes which the growth of literacy, the proliferation of writing and the emergence of print marketplace made in the social and cultural life of Britain and demonstrated the contingency of the emerging criticism on the technological and economic conditions of book production. The first part focusses on the representation of the tensions created by the emergence of literate society and on the hopes and fears awoken by the expansion of the cultural public sphere caused by the proliferation of print. The second part explores the contribution of literature to the shaping of the roles of authors, readers and patrons in the field of literary production.



Authors and Affiliations

  • Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poznań, Poland

    Joanna Maciulewicz

About the author

Joanna Maciulewicz is Assistant Professor at the Department of English Literature, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland.   

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 64.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access