Experiencing Political Texts

In order to be effective, political texts must not simply inform their readers and convince them of the validity of the arguments being presented, but must prompt their readers' engagement with those arguments and even incite them to action. The authors of political texts published c.1500-1800 were particularly conscious of this requirement, perhaps partly because these texts were often read aloud and were designed to be 'experienced' rather than just read. To achieve this end they wrote in a wide range of genres; made use of an array of literary strategies - including playfully blending fact and fiction; exploited the physical form of the works they produced; and paid attention to the interaction between the written word, images and artefacts, and to how these objects circulated at political gatherings. Exploring these methods and considering how effective they were in achieving their ends has implications for the reading of those texts today, for the ways in which they are presented to modern audiences, and for the articulation of political arguments in the twenty-first century.

This project involves the creation of a network that will draw together a range of humanities scholars with complementary skills enabling in-depth analysis of the strategies deployed by early modern political writers to engage their readers. Attention will be paid to the ways in which the genre and physical form of a text contributed to and reinforced its substantive argument and to the interaction between written texts and the wider material and political culture. The inclusion of software developers and library and archive professionals within the network will allow us to explore the implications of these findings for the presentation of early modern political texts in library catalogues, exhibitions, and modern digital editions. The digital form offers opportunities but also obstacles to the presentation of the materiality of early modern texts, yet questions of form often come as an afterthought in discussions of these texts. Consultation and co-creation with the wider public, through a monthly reading group and practical application of the findings in two public exhibitions, will be crucial in gauging how audiences engage with political texts today; the role that genre, literary devices, and the physical form of the text play in that process; and how texts can be presented in ways that reflect the intentions of their authors while also speaking effectively to modern readers. This engagement will ensure that the relevance of these findings for twenty-first-century society can be addressed, both in thinking about the relative advantages of print versus digital editions, and in using historical resources to develop strategies for fostering active citizenship today.