Making the modern reader
Subtitle: cultural mediation in early modern literary anthologies
By: Barbara M. Benedict.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Princeton, N.J
Language: eng
Number of pages: 252
Subjects: English literature -- 18th century -- History and criticism -- Theory, etc.; English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism -- Theory, etc.; Literature publishing -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century.; Literature publishing -- Great Britain -- History -- 17th century.; Books and reading -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century.; Books and reading -- Great Britain -- History -- 17th century.; Literature and anthropology -- Great Britain.; Editing -- History -- 18th century.; Editing -- History -- 17th century.; Canon (Literature)
Description: Making the Modern Reader, the first full treatment of the early modern anthology, is in part a history of the London printing trade as well as of the professionalization of criticism. Benedict thoroughly documents the historical redefinition of the reader: once a member of a communal literary culture, the reader became private and introspective, morally and culturally shaped by choices in reading.

She argues that eighteenth-century collections promised the reader that culture could be acquired through the absorption of literary values. This process of cultural education appealed to a middle class seeking to become discriminating consumers of art.

. By addressing this neglected genre, Benedict contributes a new perspective on the tension between popular and high culture, between the common reader and the elite. This book will interest scholars working in cultural studies and those studying non-canonical texts as well as eighteenth-century literature in general.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [229]-242) and index.