Overview

In the late sixteenth through seventeenth centuries, England simultaneously developed a national market and a national literary culture. Writing at the Origin of Capitalism describes how economic change in early modern England created new patterns of textual production and circulation with lasting consequences for English literature. Synthesizing research in book and media history, including investigations of manuscript and print, with Marxist historical theory, this volume demonstrates that England's transition to capitalism had a decisive impact on techniques of writing, rates of literacy, and modes of reception, and, in turn, on the form and style of texts. Individual chapters discuss the impact of market integration on linguistic standardization and the rise of a uniform English prose; the growth of a popular literary market alongside a national market in cheap commodities; and the decline of literary patronage with the monarchy's loosening grip on trade regulation, among other subjects. Peddlers' routes and price integration, monopoly licenses and bills of exchange, all prove vital for understanding early modern English writing. Each chapter reveals how books and documents were embedded in wider economic processes, and as a result, how the origin of capitalism constituted a revolutionary event in the history of English literature.

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9780198869467

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In five compact chapters, Werlin looks at the relevance of broadsides and ballads as commodities produced by the infant publishing industry and how diaries reflect the development of financial record keeping at a time when England's economy was turning from agriculture to trade ... the book is accessible to nonspecialists and undergraduates interested in the economic context of early- modern English literature. * J. Rodzvilla, CHOICE *

She [Julianne Werlin] has written a short, interesting, and accessible book which is pleasantly free from jargon. References to the literature are mainly in footnotes which in many cases provide useful summaries of relevant arguments and findings. * Renee Prendergast, Oeconomia * In five compact chapters, Werlin looks at the relevance of broadsides and ballads as commodities produced by the infant publishing industry and how diaries reflect the development of financial record keeping at a time when England's economy was turning from agriculture to trade ... the book is accessible to nonspecialists and undergraduates interested in the economic context of early- modern English literature. * J. Rodzvilla, CHOICE *

Author Information

Julianne Werlin is Assistant Professor in the English Department at Duke University specializing in early modern literature. She received her doctorate from Princeton University, and has held fellowships at The University of Southern California, Central European University, The Folger Shakespeare Library, and The Huntington Library.

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