Overview
- Provides a study of the social practice of reading
- Examines the practice of reading in a variety of global contexts
- Outlines the theoretical components and subsequent empirical investigations of the cultural sociology of reading
Part of the book series: Cultural Sociology (CULTSOC)
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Keywords
Table of contents (19 chapters)
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The Project of a Cultural Sociology of Reading
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Reading, Books and Texts as Iconic Experience
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Literary Value and Cultural Intermediaries
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Bookshops, Libraries, and the Interplay of “High” and “Popular” Culture
Reviews
“The book edited by María Angélica Thumala Olave is a major contribution to the study of the book and its multiple appropriations, a particularly dynamic and fertile sector of cultural sociology. Thanks to the quality of the chapters, it succeeds in the tour de force of making us understand, in relation to varied national contexts, periods and types of texts, the meaning and functions, from the most political to the most intimate, of an object as central in the history of humanity as the book.” (Bernard Lahire, Professor of Sociology, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France)
“Why does reading matter? What are the individual and social uses, practices and values of reading? This book answers these questions on a global scale. The case studies and genres covered-- novels, zines, erotic literature, religious booklets, popular media narratives— from around the world offer a richly heterogeneous panorama of reading from the nineteenth century to the present. Bringing together sociology and cultural studies, the authors illuminate the spaces, politics, ethics, materiality, affect, and embodiment of reading.” (Marcy Schwartz, Professor and Chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Rutgers University, USA)
"The Cultural Sociology of Reading presents compelling andoften striking encounters between the sociological and the literary. Ranging widely across peoples, places, and times, the book is attentive as much to the subjective experience of reading as it is to the social structures through which the activity is regulated and ordered. Offering important new insights into how we read and why, the book constitutes a major contribution to the academic study of the social and cultural dimensions of reading." (Andrew Bennett, Professor of English, University of Bristol)"The eighteen methodologically rich essays in The Cultural Sociology of Reading explore the ways the practice of reading recalibrates cultural value, subverts political meaning, and constitutes the social and affective self in a range of sociological, literary, and physical contexts. Extending Michel de Certeau’s assertion of the creativity and unpredictability of the act of reading into various corners of the globe, the authors engage a plethora ofmodes of reading (engaged, detached, collective, and clandestine) on the part of diverse demographics of readers (acquisition editors, zine collectors, professional and lay reviewers) in a variety of spaces—from bookstores to bedrooms, from well-lit libraries to the shadows of repressive regimes. The essays occasionally talk past and even against one another but remain in conversation through the interplay among the volume’s defly reinforced through lines: meaning, emotions, and materiality. " (Joan Judge, 2021 Guggenheim Fellow, FRSC, York University)
Editors and Affiliations
About the editor
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Cultural Sociology of Reading
Book Subtitle: The Meanings of Reading and Books Across the World
Editors: María Angélica Thumala Olave
Series Title: Cultural Sociology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13227-8
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-13226-1Published: 13 December 2022
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-13229-2Published: 13 December 2023
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-13227-8Published: 12 December 2022
Series ISSN: 2946-3572
Series E-ISSN: 2946-3580
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXV, 590
Number of Illustrations: 10 b/w illustrations, 26 illustrations in colour
Topics: Sociology of Culture, Sociological Theory, History of the Book