The Dark Side of Literacy : Literature and Learning Not to Read

Reading is good for us. The reading of literature, we are told, enlarges our horizons, extends our experience beyond our own lives. But the moral and political dangers that attend the association of reading with experience have long been understood. And is that association even valid? What if precisely our most important literary texts are constructed so as to challenge or disrupt it? This book is a radical criticism of the concept of reading, especially of the concept of the reader, as commonly used in literary criticism. Bennett starts with the point that reading does not name a single, identifiable type of experience or class of experiences. Her then sketches in broad terms the historical provenance of the reader, in an argument that includes discussions of Dante, Boccaccio, Cervantes, Marlowe, and German idealist philosophy. In two concluding chapters on modern German novellas, he suggests that most major European literary works since the eighteenth century are written in direct opposition to the central concepts by which criticism has sought to lay hold of them. Reading is good for us. The reading of literature, we are told, enlarges our horizons, extends our experience beyond our own lives. But the moral and political dangers that attend the association of reading with experience have long been understood. And is that association even valid? What if precisely our most important literary texts are constructed so as to challenge or disrupt it? This book is a radical criticism of the concept of reading, especially of the concept of the reader, as commonly used in literary criticism. The author starts with the point that reading does not name a single, identifiable type of experience or class of experiences. He then sketches in broad terms the historical provenance of the reader, in an argument that includes discussions of Dante, Boccaccio, Cervantes, Marlowe, and German idealist philosophy. In two concluding chapters on modern German novellas, the author suggests that most major European literary works since the eighteenth century have been written in direct opposition to the central concepts by which criticism has sought to lay hold of them "This book conducts a radical criticism of the concept of "reading," especially of the concept of "the" reader, as these concepts are commonly used in literary criticism. It sketches in broad terms the historical provenance of "the" reader, in an argument that includes discussions of Dante, Boccaccio, Cervantes, Marlowe, and German idealist philosophy, then suggests that most major European literary works since the eighteenth century are written in direct opposition to the central concepts by which criticism has sought to lay hold of them."--Jacket Reading and the theory of reading Poems, myths, and the advent of modern reading Dante and the invention of the novel reader Boccaccio, Cervantes, and the path to solitary reading Magic and history : the roots and branches of Dr. Faustus Intransitive parody and the trap of reading : what reading really is Kleist, Kafka, and the refutation of reading The parting of the ways : a concluding note on the novel and literary studies. A radical critique of the concepts of 'reading' and 'the' reader as they are commonly used in literary criticism. The book sketches in broad terms the historical provenance of 'the' reader, in an argument that includes discussions of Dante Boccaccio, Cervantes, Marlowe and German idealist philosophy