According to one anecdote, Pope read Spenser aloud (at least once): "After
reading a canto of Spenser two or three days ago to an old lady, between
seventy and eighty years of age, she said that I had been showing her a
gallery of pictures."
Although not perhaps in all things relevant here, Andrew Cambers, in Godly
Reading: Print, Manuscript and Puritanism in England, 1580-1720
(Cambridge, 2011), argues that communal and public - often noisy - reading
predominated amongst the godly throughout the seventeenth century. He
maintains that this sort of reading was a hallmark of godly identity, and
so he queries the idea that Puritanism was linked to a sense of
individualism / interiority.
Best,
Oliver
----------------------------------------------
On 11 Apr 2012, at 21:23, Katherine Eggert wrote:
Elspeth Jajdelska (Silent Reading and the Birth of the Narrator) has
recently argued that silent reading became widespread only in the 18th
century, with increasing childhood literacy.
One reader of Sidney and Spenser, at least, was in the habit of thinking
that reading was a silent activity: Shakespeare’s readers are silent
unless they have to convey the information to the audience or another
character. Ophelia’s not mouthing words aloud when Hamlet comes upon her
reading a book, and Polonius has to ask Hamlet what he’s reading. “Look
where sadly the poor wretch comes reading,” says Gertrude of Hamlet. (Not
“Hear where. . . “ ) Achilles interrupts Ulysses’ silent reading in
Troilus, 3.3. Imogen reads silently a bit before going to sleep, unaware
that Iachimo’s hiding in her bedchamber.
Katherine
Katherine Eggert
Associate Professor of English
University of Colorado at Boulder
226 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309-0226
[log in to unmask]
From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Martin Mueller
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2012 1:55 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: two questions
Paul Saenger's book Space between Words makes the argument that silent
reading is due to two independent medieval inventions: the space between
words and lower case letters with their ascenders and descenders. Put
these two things together and a lot of words, especially common words,
have shapes that are processed as individual units and indeed call on
different processing units in the brain.
Being a proper medievalist, Saenger naturally claims that all the
important stuff happened long before the Renaissance.
MM
From: Hannibal Hamlin <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:48:59 -0400
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: two questions
Dear Si-Sp Colleagues,
I have two questions of different sorts.
First, for a graduate course I'm teaching on the Petrarchan tradition, I'm
curious what members feel are the best essays/chapters/excerptible pieces
on FQ 3.
Second, does anyone know of hard evidence for the beginning of silent
reading (or conversely the continuance of reading aloud)? Last year, I
heard Gordon Campbell claim a very late date (17th c.?) for the beginning
of silent reading, and I've heard other claims made, but without
substantiation. Is there an authoritative study? Specifically, would
readers of Sidney and Spenser have read aloud, even privately?
Many thanks,
Hannibal
--
Hannibal Hamlin
Associate Professor of English
Editor, Reformation
Co-curator, Manifold Greatness: The Creation and Afterlife of the King
James Bible
http://www.manifoldgreatness.org/
The Ohio State University
164 West 17th Ave., 421 Denney Hall
Columbus, OH 43210-1340
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]
|