Ebook209 pages4 hours
Regionalism and the Reading Class
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this ebook
Globalization and the Internet are smothering cultural regionalism, that sense of place that flourished in simpler times. These two villains are also prime suspects in the death of reading. Or so alarming reports about our homogenous and dumbed-down culture would have it, but as Regionalism and the Reading Class shows, neither of these claims stands up under scrutiny—quite the contrary.
Wendy Griswold draws on cases from Italy, Norway, and the United States to show that fans of books form their own reading class, with a distinctive demographic profile separate from the general public. This reading class is modest in size but intense in its literary practices. Paradoxically these educated and mobile elites work hard to put down local roots by, among other strategies, exploring regional writing. Ultimately, due to the technological, economic, and political advantages they wield, cosmopolitan readers are able to celebrate, perpetuate, and reinvigorate local culture.
Griswold’s study will appeal to students of cultural sociology and the history of the book—and her findings will be welcome news to anyone worried about the future of reading or the eclipse of place.
Wendy Griswold draws on cases from Italy, Norway, and the United States to show that fans of books form their own reading class, with a distinctive demographic profile separate from the general public. This reading class is modest in size but intense in its literary practices. Paradoxically these educated and mobile elites work hard to put down local roots by, among other strategies, exploring regional writing. Ultimately, due to the technological, economic, and political advantages they wield, cosmopolitan readers are able to celebrate, perpetuate, and reinvigorate local culture.
Griswold’s study will appeal to students of cultural sociology and the history of the book—and her findings will be welcome news to anyone worried about the future of reading or the eclipse of place.
Read more from Wendy Griswold
American Guides: The Federal Writers’ Project and the Casting of American Culture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Regionalism and the Reading Class
Related ebooks
Travelling towards Home: Mobilities and Homemaking Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBasque Violence: Metaphor And Sacrament Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Worldviews And The American West: The Life of the Place Itself Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArea Studies in the Global Age: Community, Place, Identity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReciprocal Mobilities: Indigeneity and Imperialism in an Eighteenth-Century Philippine Borderland Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMonumental Lies: Early Nevada Folklore of the Wild West Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsForbidden Signs: American Culture and the Campaign against Sign Language Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRacial Attitudes in English-Canadian Fiction, 1905-1980 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsImplied Nowhere: Absence in Folklore Studies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmall Countries: Structures and Sensibilities Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRace and Ethnicity in Latin America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCulture and Value: Tourism, Heritage, and Property Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Neighborhood That Never Changes: Gentrification, Social Preservation, and the Search for Authenticity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMade in America: A Social History of American Culture and Character Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From Notes to Narrative: Writing Ethnographies That Everyone Can Read Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Working People of California Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRace and Sex in Latin America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsViolence Against Indigenous Women: Literature, Activism, Resistance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Latina Leadership: Language and Literacy Education across Communities Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerican Folk Legend: A Symposium Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReading The Trail: Exploring The Literature And Natural History Of The California Crest Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTroubling Tricksters: Revisioning Critical Conversations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEthnic Historians and the Mainstream: Shaping America's Immigration Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrom History to Theory Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mixed Harvest: The Second Great Transformation in the Rural North, 1870-1930 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Where the Wild Books Are: A Field Guide to Ecofiction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blowin' Hot and Cool: Jazz and Its Critics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCaribbean Children's Literature, Volume 2: Critical Approaches Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEthnography in Today's World: Color Full Before Color Blind Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAfrican Literature and Social Change: Tribe, Nation, Race Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for Regionalism and the Reading Class
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
1 rating0 reviews
Book preview
Regionalism and the Reading Class - Wendy Griswold
|] book_preview_excerpt.html
Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1