The Development of Peasants’ Reading Habits in Courland and Livonia in the 18th Century*

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Autore principale: Daija Pauls
Natura: Artículo científico
Lingua:es
Pubblicazione: Vilniaus Universitetas 2021
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author Daija Pauls
author_facet Daija Pauls
contents The Development of Peasants’ Reading Habits in Courland and Livonia in the 18th Century* Daija Pauls Historia enlightenment Baltic Germans History of reading history of reading reading revolution The article explores the development of peasants’ reading habits over the 18th century in the Latvian-inhabited Lutheran regions of Russia’s Baltic provinces Courland/Kurzeme and Latvian Livonia/Vidzeme. By analysing the transition from intensive to extensive reading patterns, as well as from loud and ceremonial to silent and private reading, insight into the available statistical sources and information from subscription lists is provided and the observations of contemporaries are scrutinized. The views on Latvian peasants’ reading habits expressed by Baltic-German Lutheran parsons Friedrich Bernhard Blaufuß, Joachim Baumann, Christian David Lenz, Johann Friedrich Casimir Rosenberger, Alexander Johann Stender, as well as those published by Johann Friedrich Steffenhagen, are discussed within the context of urban and middle-class reading patterns. While the number of literate peasants in the 18th century was high, reaching one third in Courland and two thirds in Livonia by the turn of the 19th century, the motivation for reading and everyday habits differed, and while extensive reading increased, before the 1840s, the Baltic rural society did not see a phenomenon similar to the European middle-class reading revolution. The article focuses on differentiating among various types of readers, divided according to their confessional lines (Herrnhutian Brethren or Lutheran Orthodox Church), social standing (reading patterns were different depending on rural professions) or generation (the older generation tended to prefer loud and ceremonial religious reading while the younger generation more often adopted silent, private and secular reading). The collective reading of books has been explored by demonstrating how it allowed combining the reading of books with other activities and also performed a socializing function. The available sources demonstrate that quiet reading did not replace reading aloud, in the same way that extensive reading did not replace intensive, but all reading practices continued to co-exist alongside each other, creating an increasingly diverse and saturated reading experience. 2021 artículo científico 0204-2061 https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=694372829004 https://www.redalyc.org/journal/6943/694372829004/ https://www.redalyc.org/journal/6943/694372829004/html/ https://www.redalyc.org/journal/6943/694372829004/694372829004.epub https://www.redalyc.org/journal/6943/694372829004/movil https://doi.org/10.15388/Knygotyra.2021.76.74 es http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=6943 Knygotyra application/pdf Vilniaus Universitetas Knygotyra (Lituania) Vol.76
format Artículo científico
id redalyc_694372829004
institution Redalyc
language es
publishDate 2021
publisher Vilniaus Universitetas
spellingShingle The Development of Peasants’ Reading Habits in Courland and Livonia in the 18th Century*
Daija Pauls
Historia
enlightenment
Baltic Germans
History of reading
history of reading
reading revolution
The Development of Peasants’ Reading Habits in Courland and Livonia in the 18th Century* Daija Pauls Historia enlightenment Baltic Germans History of reading history of reading reading revolution The article explores the development of peasants’ reading habits over the 18th century in the Latvian-inhabited Lutheran regions of Russia’s Baltic provinces Courland/Kurzeme and Latvian Livonia/Vidzeme. By analysing the transition from intensive to extensive reading patterns, as well as from loud and ceremonial to silent and private reading, insight into the available statistical sources and information from subscription lists is provided and the observations of contemporaries are scrutinized. The views on Latvian peasants’ reading habits expressed by Baltic-German Lutheran parsons Friedrich Bernhard Blaufuß, Joachim Baumann, Christian David Lenz, Johann Friedrich Casimir Rosenberger, Alexander Johann Stender, as well as those published by Johann Friedrich Steffenhagen, are discussed within the context of urban and middle-class reading patterns. While the number of literate peasants in the 18th century was high, reaching one third in Courland and two thirds in Livonia by the turn of the 19th century, the motivation for reading and everyday habits differed, and while extensive reading increased, before the 1840s, the Baltic rural society did not see a phenomenon similar to the European middle-class reading revolution. The article focuses on differentiating among various types of readers, divided according to their confessional lines (Herrnhutian Brethren or Lutheran Orthodox Church), social standing (reading patterns were different depending on rural professions) or generation (the older generation tended to prefer loud and ceremonial religious reading while the younger generation more often adopted silent, private and secular reading). The collective reading of books has been explored by demonstrating how it allowed combining the reading of books with other activities and also performed a socializing function. The available sources demonstrate that quiet reading did not replace reading aloud, in the same way that extensive reading did not replace intensive, but all reading practices continued to co-exist alongside each other, creating an increasingly diverse and saturated reading experience. 2021 artículo científico 0204-2061 https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=694372829004 https://www.redalyc.org/journal/6943/694372829004/ https://www.redalyc.org/journal/6943/694372829004/html/ https://www.redalyc.org/journal/6943/694372829004/694372829004.epub https://www.redalyc.org/journal/6943/694372829004/movil https://doi.org/10.15388/Knygotyra.2021.76.74 es http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=6943 Knygotyra application/pdf Vilniaus Universitetas Knygotyra (Lituania) Vol.76
title The Development of Peasants’ Reading Habits in Courland and Livonia in the 18th Century*
topic Historia
enlightenment
Baltic Germans
History of reading
history of reading
reading revolution
url https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=694372829004
https://www.redalyc.org/journal/6943/694372829004/
https://www.redalyc.org/journal/6943/694372829004/html/
https://www.redalyc.org/journal/6943/694372829004/694372829004.epub
https://www.redalyc.org/journal/6943/694372829004/movil
https://doi.org/10.15388/Knygotyra.2021.76.74