Representation and Reality: A Study of Novel Reading in Post-Enlightenment Scotland, 1800-1837
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Stirling
Department Name: English
Abstract
To what extent and in what ways was the novel presented as an improving form of literature between the years 1800 and 1837?
To what extent and in what ways are the effects of novel reading presented by Scottish novelists Mary Brunton, Susan Ferrier, John Galt, Elizabeth Hamilton, James Hogg, and Walter Scott reflected in the borrowing tendencies of contemporary readers?
To what extent and in what ways do these tendencies reveal regional trends in post-Enlightenment Scottish readership behaviour?
This project centres upon a relationship between novel reading and forms of improvement that was intrinsic to post-Enlightenment Scottish culture and thinking. The post-Enlightenment period - defined here as running from 1800 to 1837 - constituted a pivotal stage in the canonisation and popularisation of the novel, marked most notably by Scott's seismic entrance onto the literary scene during the mid-1810s, followed by a major expansion in print runs and the rise of the novel within subscription libraries in Scotland. Whilst improvement was often the subject of novels during the early nineteenth century, the extent to which the act of novel reading was considered 'improving' was much debated. In Brunton's Self-Control (1811) and Ferrier's The Inheritance (1824), for example, reading is presented as a catalytic act through which the individual reader might both cultivate and demonstrate the enlightened state of their mind. Such acts of self-improvement participated in a larger process by which the nation was supposed to 'improve'. However, they existed alongside the perceived dangers of excessive or injudicious reading, especially with regard to women and lower-class readers. Galt, for example, reflects - albeit satirically - upon the dangers of young women reading novels in The Entail (1823). Indeed, such dangers were often discussed within novels for ostensibly didactic reasons, engaging readers in a meta-discourse about the consequences of reading fiction.
To what extent and in what ways are the effects of novel reading presented by Scottish novelists Mary Brunton, Susan Ferrier, John Galt, Elizabeth Hamilton, James Hogg, and Walter Scott reflected in the borrowing tendencies of contemporary readers?
To what extent and in what ways do these tendencies reveal regional trends in post-Enlightenment Scottish readership behaviour?
This project centres upon a relationship between novel reading and forms of improvement that was intrinsic to post-Enlightenment Scottish culture and thinking. The post-Enlightenment period - defined here as running from 1800 to 1837 - constituted a pivotal stage in the canonisation and popularisation of the novel, marked most notably by Scott's seismic entrance onto the literary scene during the mid-1810s, followed by a major expansion in print runs and the rise of the novel within subscription libraries in Scotland. Whilst improvement was often the subject of novels during the early nineteenth century, the extent to which the act of novel reading was considered 'improving' was much debated. In Brunton's Self-Control (1811) and Ferrier's The Inheritance (1824), for example, reading is presented as a catalytic act through which the individual reader might both cultivate and demonstrate the enlightened state of their mind. Such acts of self-improvement participated in a larger process by which the nation was supposed to 'improve'. However, they existed alongside the perceived dangers of excessive or injudicious reading, especially with regard to women and lower-class readers. Galt, for example, reflects - albeit satirically - upon the dangers of young women reading novels in The Entail (1823). Indeed, such dangers were often discussed within novels for ostensibly didactic reasons, engaging readers in a meta-discourse about the consequences of reading fiction.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Katie Halsey (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Cleo O'Callaghan Yeoman (Student) |