"Love to Learn Your Book": Children's Experiences of Text in the Eighteenth Century

Fuente: ERIC Institute of Education Sciences
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Main Authors: Arizpe, Evelyn, Styles, Morag
Format: Recurso educativo Open Access
Language:en
Published: 2004
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author Arizpe, Evelyn
Styles, Morag
author_facet Arizpe, Evelyn
Styles, Morag
Arizpe, Evelyn
Styles, Morag
collection Education Resources Information Center
contents "Love to Learn Your Book": Children's Experiences of Text in the Eighteenth Century Arizpe, Evelyn Styles, Morag Foreign Countries Educational History Childrens Literature Reading Instruction Social Influences Cultural Influences Beginning Reading Reconstructing historical reading practices is always problematic and even more so when we are talking about children, a group of readers whose voices have only recently been considered important enough to take into account in understanding the act of reading. As literary historians, we must recognize that we read texts meant for children from previous centuries not only through the distorted lens of twenty-first century Western academic traditions but also as adults. However, by focusing on the empirical data available for specific children in a particular period (the mid-eighteenth century in this case) and using educational theory, the history of books for children and other reader reconstructions, we can begin to piece together a picture of the Johnson children's experiences of texts. Dealing with case studies implies other problems, especially when they seem to be exceptional rather than exemplary. This particular case study is exceptional because it is based on an archive that is unique in the history of domestic literacy in eighteenth-century England: Jane Johnson's nursery library. The 'library' consists of nearly 400 cards and other artefacts found in a hatbox after the death of Elisabeth Ball, a collector of early children's books.
format Recurso educativo Open Access
id eric_EJ681789
institution ERIC Institute of Education Sciences
language en
publishDate 2004
record_format eric
spellingShingle "Love to Learn Your Book": Children's Experiences of Text in the Eighteenth Century
Arizpe, Evelyn
Styles, Morag
Foreign Countries
Educational History
Childrens Literature
Reading Instruction
Social Influences
Cultural Influences
Beginning Reading
"Love to Learn Your Book": Children's Experiences of Text in the Eighteenth Century Arizpe, Evelyn Styles, Morag Foreign Countries Educational History Childrens Literature Reading Instruction Social Influences Cultural Influences Beginning Reading Reconstructing historical reading practices is always problematic and even more so when we are talking about children, a group of readers whose voices have only recently been considered important enough to take into account in understanding the act of reading. As literary historians, we must recognize that we read texts meant for children from previous centuries not only through the distorted lens of twenty-first century Western academic traditions but also as adults. However, by focusing on the empirical data available for specific children in a particular period (the mid-eighteenth century in this case) and using educational theory, the history of books for children and other reader reconstructions, we can begin to piece together a picture of the Johnson children's experiences of texts. Dealing with case studies implies other problems, especially when they seem to be exceptional rather than exemplary. This particular case study is exceptional because it is based on an archive that is unique in the history of domestic literacy in eighteenth-century England: Jane Johnson's nursery library. The 'library' consists of nearly 400 cards and other artefacts found in a hatbox after the death of Elisabeth Ball, a collector of early children's books.
title "Love to Learn Your Book": Children's Experiences of Text in the Eighteenth Century
topic Foreign Countries
Educational History
Childrens Literature
Reading Instruction
Social Influences
Cultural Influences
Beginning Reading
url https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ681789