Habits of Reading in Early Modern England
Directed by Steven N. Zwicker, Professor of English at Washington University
June 16 through July 25, 1997
This NEH Summer Institute made reading in all its facets the subject of intensive study and exploration. Working with the rich Folger collections and surveying the now substantial body of scholarship on the subject, the institute considered the full range of intellectual and affective transactions between readers and their books. Topics included: the ways that the printing and distribution of books shaped texts, the relations between the practices of reading and the formation of collections and libraries, the inflection of politics by prim, and the aesthetic and intellectual consequences of censorship, regulation, clientage, and patronage.
Throughout the course of the institute, participating college instructors expanded their knowledge of the book as a physical object with a session in the Folger's conservation laboratory; developed their facility in reading the hands of annotations with a paleography practicum; examined search strategies for evidence of readers' responses to texts with an introduction to online resources; and attended supplement field trips to the National Gallery of Art with an introduction to the Gallery's archive of prints and library of slides. This institute made available strategies for college faculty to understand and, more importantly, to teach how texts spoke to the passions of early modern politics and spirituality. To that pedagogical end, participants collectively assembled a packet of illustrative materials to be reproduced for incorporation into their own coursework with students.
Materials and Products The syllabus is available here.
While the website is no longer supported, it has been archived: Institute Website: Habits of Reading in Early Modern England
A PDF of the website's pages with the participants' interpretive essays.
A PDF of the original promotional flyer. The bibliography can be found here: Bibliography for Habits of Reading in Early Modern England Resulting publication: Anderson, Jennifer and Elizabeth Sauer, ed. Books and Readers in Early Modern England: Material Studies. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. Z1003.5.G7 B69 2002
Habits of Reading in Early Modern England (Archived)
Participants
(see also Habits of Reading in Early Modern England participants)
Faculty (See also Habits of Reading in Early Modern England faculty)
For more past programming from the Folger Institute, please see the article Folger Institute scholarly programs archive.
Hosted by the Folger Shakespeare Library. For more information about current summer seminars, please visit the National Endowment for the Humanities website.