Early Modern Prose Fiction The Cultural Politics of Reading

Early modern prose fiction had a huge impact on the social and economic fabric of the time. It created a new culture of reading and writing for pleasure which became accessible to those previously excluded from such activities (primarily women and the working classes), resulting in a significant challenge to existing class structures.Each of the essays in this exciting collection considers the reciprocal relation of early modern prose fiction to class distinctions, examining factors such as: the impact of prose fiction on the social, political and economic fabric of early modern England the way in which a growing emphasis on literacy allowed for increased class mobility and newly flexible notions of class how the popularity of reading and the subsequent demand for books led to the production and marketing of books as an industry complications for critics of prose fiction, as it began to be considered an inferior and trivial art form.Emphasising the significance of early modern prose fiction as a hybrid genre that absorbed cultural, ideological, and historical strands of the age, this fascinating study brings together an outstanding cast of critics including: Sheila T. Cavanaugh, Stephen Guy-Bray, Mary Ellen Lamb, Joan Pong Linton, Steve Mentz, Constance C. Relihan, Goran V. Stanivukovic with an afterword from Arthur Kinney.Liebler, Naomi Conn is the author of 'Early Modern Prose Fiction The Cultural Politics of Reading', published 2006 under ISBN 9780415358408 and ISBN 041535840X.