Protocols Of Reading In The 1800's Case Study

Protocols of Reading in the Mid 1800’s There is nothing better than devouring a good book. We hungrily flip through pages, possibly even just scan the text purely to see what action lies ahead. However, in the 19th century, protocols of reading were much different than our current practices. Books, magazines and newspapers were seen as precious and it was a treat to be able to read for a few minutes at night. The cultural context of the 1850’s will be crucial in order to determine common practices of reading, especially in women. The female reader was treated very differently than their male counterpart. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin will be used as a case study to examine the role of not only the female reader, but the female
Even if a home did have varied texts to read, finding the time proved to be difficult. “Those of us who are determined to live like human beings and require food for mind as well as body, are obliged to take time from sleep to gratify this desire” (Flint 193). Chores and daily duties had to be completed first and reading was a last priority. As this quote explains, if one had a desire to expand the mind, time would have commonly been taken from their nightly sleep. Reading was a recreation, not on occupation or necessity. Girls or women could get some reading done in a parlor while they were sewing and someone was reading aloud. They were sometimes asked to write down words they did not know the meaning to while listening to the reader. But it was important that they were always ready to take callers. An interesting observation from girls in the 19th century was that they often could not decipher what reading was part of their lessons and what reading was purely recreational. Authors such as Shakespeare, Scott, and Dickens were considered family favorites however, they could have also been seen as scholastically
Men enjoyed writing and reading about life at the high seas or the torturous days on the battle fields. Although women did commonly write about family life, emotions or feelings, it would be unfair to claim that women only wrote sentimental texts. Authors such as Chopin, Wharton, Cather and Gilman stretched the limits of sentimental texts and incorporated universal truths. “Women with literary ambition recognized that asserting the aesthetic value of their work depended on refusing what was perceived as the narrow, sentimental focus on home, hearth, and virtue” (Nolan 571). The women listed above knew they had to go beyond established stigmas, and stretch their boundaries to fit into the literary canon.

Works Cited
Brown, Matthew D. "Reading and National Identity: 1820-1860." Cultural History of Reading. Westport: Greenwood, 2009. 97-131. Print.
Flint, Kate. "Reading Practices." The Woman Reader 1837-1914. Oxford: Clarendon, 1994. 187-249. Print.
Gilding, A. L.."Preserving Sentiments: American Women's Magazines of the 1830s and the Networks of Antebellum Print Culture." American Periodicals: A Journal of History & Criticism 23.2 (2013): 156-171. Project MUSE. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.
Nolan, Elizabeth. "The Woman's Novel beyond Sentimentalism." The Cambridge History of The American Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2011. 571-85.