Description
Dr Elspeth Jajdelska - “Who was Johnson's 'Common reader'? Reading, rank and evaluation in the eighteenth century.” There is evidence that the relationship between the concepts of speech and writing was reconceived in the eighteenth century. Where once writing might have been seen as a record of past, or a script for future, speech, in the eighteenth century the two were more likely to be seen as independent modes of utterance. One consequence of this development was a reconfiguration of the relationship between writers and readers, as printed texts could no longer be seen as direct addresses to readers of a specific rank. In this paper, I explore the different meanings of 'common' in Johnson's formulation, and argue that the sense of 'common' as sharing in 'common knowledge' may be as important as the sense of 'vulgar' or low in rank. I suggest that, for some, reading could be modelled as an observation and evaluation by a critic reader of the author's performance to a notional, or 'common' reader, who served as an index of the author's success.| Period | 19 Dec 2014 |
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| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Edinburgh, United KingdomShow on map |