04135nam 2200745 450 991045639120332120200520144314.01-4426-8480-110.3138/9781442684805(CKB)2430000000002113(EBL)4672359(SSID)ssj0000382510(PQKBManifestationID)11276943(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000382510(PQKBWorkID)10393150(PQKB)10965096(CaBNvSL)slc00222097(CaPaEBR)424322(MiAaPQ)EBC3261248(MiAaPQ)EBC4672359(DE-B1597)464073(OCoLC)1013940683(OCoLC)944177121(DE-B1597)9781442684805(Au-PeEL)EBL4672359(CaPaEBR)ebr11258028(OCoLC)647746626(EXLCZ)99243000000000211320160923h20072007 uy 0engur|n|---|||||txtccrSilent reading and the birth of the narrator /Elspeth JajdelskaToronto, [Ontario] ;Buffalo, [New York] ;London, [England] :University of Toronto Press,2007.©20071 online resource (235 p.)Studies in Book and Print CultureDescription based upon print version of record.0-8020-9364-7 Includes bibliographical references and index.Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Income, Ideology, and Childhood Reading -- 2. Pausing for Effect -- 3. Pausing for Breath -- 4. Writing Polite Letters -- 5. The Birth of the Recreational Diary -- 6. The Birth of the Narrator -- Appendix -- Bibliography -- Index -- BackmatterAlthough there is abundant evidence that silent reading existed in antiquity, the question remains as to when it became widespread. Silent Reading and the Birth of the Narrator asserts that, due to a rise in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries in the number of parents who could afford to let their children read freely, widely, and for prolonged periods, an entire generation grew into fluent, silent readers in the later 1700s. At that point in time, the reader ceased to be a mouthpiece of the writer, becoming instead a silent hearer of an imagined writer?s words.Elspeth Jajdelska uses historical, linguistic, and literary evidence to discuss the reorientation of the text and reader towards one another. She specifically investigates changes in punctuation, sentence structure, and letter and diary writing in the period to illuminate the emergence of a new prose style and the birth of the narrator. Unique to Jajdelska?s study is the consideration of silent reading as something that explains changes in literary history. She also incorporates new insights on the history of reading, the novel, the diary, and the English language, using rigorous linguistic analysis and evidence drawn from the study of psychology. Based on a wealth of compelling arguments, Silent Reading and the Birth of the Narrator is an important addition to literary studies, eighteenth-century history, and book and print culture.Studies in book and print culture.Silent readingHistory18th centuryBooks and readingHistory18th centuryNarration (Rhetoric)History18th centurySilent readingHistory17th centuryBooks and readingHistory17th centuryElectronic books.Silent readingHistoryBooks and readingHistoryNarration (Rhetoric)HistorySilent readingHistoryBooks and readingHistory028/.09032Jajdelska Elspeth896930MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910456391203321Silent reading and the birth of the narrator2004151UNINA