Spring/Summer 2005 - University of Toronto Press Publishing

BOOK HISTORYReading WomenLiterary Figures and Cultural Icons from the Victorian Age to the PresentEdited by Janet Badia and Jennifer PhegleySTUDIES IN BOOK AND PRINT CULTURELiterary and popular culture has often focused itsattention on women readers, particularly since earlyVictorian times. In Reading Women, an esteemedgroup of new and established scholars provide aclose study of the evolution of the woman reader byexamining a wide range of nineteenth- and twentieth-centurymedia, including Antebellum scientifictreatises, Victorian paintings, and OphrahWinfrey’s televised book club, as well as the writingsof Charlotte Brontë, Harriet Beecher Stowe, andZora Neale Hurston.Attending especially to what, how, and whywomen read, Reading Women brings together a richarray of subjects that sheds light onthe defining role the womanreader has played in the formationnot only of literaryhistory, but of British andAmerican culture. The contributorsbreak new groundby focusing on the impactrepresentations of womenreaders have had onunderstandings of literacyand certain readingpractices, the developmentof books and print culture,and the categorization of texts intohigh and low cultural forms.Janet Badia is an assistant professor in theDepartment of English at Marshall University.Jennifer Phegley is an assistant professor in theDepartment of English at the University ofMissouri – Kansas City.ContributorsSuzanne M. AshworthJanet BadiaMichele CrescenzoKate FlintRuth HobermanBarbara HochmanMary R. LambAntonia LosanoJennifer PhegleyElizabeth Fekete TrubeyTuire ValkeakariSarah A. WadsworthAlso from the Studies in Book andPrint Culture series:Approx. 340 pp / 6 x 9 / May 200516 halftonesCloth ISBN 0-8020-8928-3 £40.00 $60.00 EThe Book UnboundEditing and Reading MedievalManuscripts and TextsEdited by Siân Echard andStephen Partridge0-8020-8756-6 / £32.00 /$50.00 / 2004Title page vignette from A Garland for Girls by Louisa May Alcott (1908).26