Overview

Combining sustained empirical analysis of reading group conversations with four case studies of classic and contemporary novels: Things Fall Apart, White Teeth, Brick Lane and Small Island, this book pursues what can be gained through a comparative approach to reading and readerships.

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9781349446650

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Among the thorniest challenges in the seething subject area of book history is how meaningfully to account for the mercurial act of reading. Who reads what, when, where and how, and what do they make of their reading? These questions are especially pertinent in today's world in which diverse texts by authors from a plethora of backgrounds encounter a multiplicity of readers, who may possess much - or very little - experience of the worlds being described. By concentrating on the vocal reactions to a swathe of post-colonial texts by participants in book clubs, Procter and Benwell by-pass the over-confident generalizations of the theorists, and present in their place a panorama of active and meaningful response. On the cusp of several sub-disciplines - response theory, post-colonial studies, cultural demography - the result is as exhilarating as it is revealing. Book history will never be quite the same again. - Professor Robert Fraser, Open University, UK What a good read! Or is that because I'm an academic reader? A book that crosses so many important boundaries, including lay and professional readers, readership across national, social and cultural boundaries, genres, and ethnicities. An exemplary interdisciplinary study especially for those in literary, postcolonial and discourse studies. - Geoff Hall, Professor and Head of English, University of Nottingham, UK This is an exemplary study of how discussion of books provides an opportunity for people to negotiate and articulate their own perspectives on class, race, and community. It shows categorically that empirical approaches to studying reading behaviour - assuming what readers say is self-evidently meaningful - are of limited use, and that the assumption that professional and non-professional readers behave significantly differently is to be seriously queried as well. It should be an essential resource for the study of reading practices. - Sarah Brouillette, Carleton University, Canada

Author Information

James Procter is a Reader in the School of English at Newcastle University, UK. His publications include Writing Black Britain (2000), Dwelling Places (2003), Stuart Hall (2004), and (with Benwell and Robinson) co-editor of Postcolonial Audiences (2012). Bethan Benwell is a Senior Lecturer in the Division of Literature and Languages at the University of Stirling, UK. She has published widely on discursive approaches to identity, including those of readers. Her publications include Masculinity and Men's Lifestyle Magazines (2003) and (with Stokoe) Discourse and Identity (2006) and (with Procter and Robinson) co-editor of Postcolonial Audiences (2012).

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