Popular reading in English c. 1400-1600 / Elisabeth Salter.

Popular reading in English c. 1400-1600 / Elisabeth Salter.

Manchester, UK ; New York : Manchester University Press ; New York : Distributed in the U.S. exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

x, 260 p., [4] p. of col. plates : ill. (some col.), facsims. ; 23 cm

This book is about reading practice and experience in late medieval and early modern England. It focuses on the kinds of literatures that were more readily available to the widest spectrum of the population. Four case studies from many possibilities have been selected, each examining a particular type of popular literature under the headings 'religious', 'moral', 'practical' and 'fictional'. A key concern of the book is how we might use particular types of evidence in order to understand more about reading practice and experience, so issues of method and approach are discussed fully in the opening chapter. One distinctive element of this book is that it attempts to uncover evidence for the reading practices and experiences of real, rather than ideal, readers, using evidence that is found within the material of a book or manuscript itself, or within the structure of a specific genre of literature.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [235]-255) and index.

Great Britain -- England.

Z1003.5.G7 S25 2012