Print Culture and Visual Interpretation in Eighteenth-Century German Editions of Thomson's The Seasons

Print culture was expanding rapidly in the eighteenth century. Yet religious literature remained the largest category of printed book and Dissenters were significant contributors to this genre. From 1695 pre-publication censorship disappeared within England so print was an important mechanism through which Dissenting identity was created and sustained. Religious works could be doctrinal, controversial, or practical and it was the latter category that had the largest lay readership. Material related to Scripture, either translated or paraphrased, accounted for much of the printed religious output but life writing and poetry were also influential. Many of the authors were ministerial and male, although the audiences for which they were writing were more varied. While it is easier to trace the uses to which material designed to educate ministers was put, there were also significant examples of Dissenters using print to fashion a wider sense of community, often through the use of non-commercial publishing models.

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VALENTINES AND THE VICTORIAN IMAGINATION:MARY BARTONANDFAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD

Victorian Literature and Culture ◽

10.1017/s106015031600067x ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 45 (2) ◽

pp. 395-412

Author(s):

Karin Koehler

Keyword(s):

Eighteenth Century ◽

Middle Ages ◽

Print Culture ◽

Written Communication ◽

Valentine's Day ◽

Epistolary Exchange ◽

Obscure Origin ◽

The Middle Ages

The custom of celebrating Valentine'sDay dates back to the Middle Ages. The emergence of Valentine's Day as a commercial holiday, exploited above all by the greeting card industry, is more recent. In Britain, Valentine's Day cards emerged in the eighteenth century. As David Vincent writes,The observance of 14 February underwent a metamorphosis during the eighteenth century which was later to befall many other customs. What had begun as an exchange of gifts, with many local variations of obscure origin, was gradually transformed into an exchange of tokens and letters, which in turn began to be replaced by printed messages from the end of the century. (44)Early examples of pre-printed Valentine's Day stationery and manuals for the composition of the perfect valentine reveal that existing folk customs were swiftly adapted by modern print culture and an increasingly literate population. However, it was the 1840 introduction of Rowland Hill's penny post in Britain, alongside concomitant advances in American and European postal infrastructure, which led to a veritable explosion in the exchange of valentines, moulding the practice into a shape still recognisable today (see Golden 222). Hill not only democratised access to written communication by lowering prices, he also anonymised epistolary exchange. Prepaid stamps and pillar post boxes made it possible to correspond with anyone, anywhere, without giving away one's identity. And while sending an anonymous letter would have been perceived as a violation of epistolary decorum during the remainder of the year, on Valentine's Day it was not only acceptable but, as Farmer Boldwood hints in Thomas Hardy'sFar from the Madding Crowd(1874), expected. The opportunity for anonymous correspondence generated an enthusiastic response.

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Heather Kerr , David Lemmings and Robert Phiddian (editors), Passions, Sympathy and Print Culture: Public Opinion and Emotional Authenticity in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). Pages xii + 290. Hardback £63.00, Ebook £49.99.

Continuity and Change ◽

10.1017/s0268416016000321 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 31 (3) ◽

pp. 427-429

Author(s):

HARRY SMITH

Keyword(s):

Eighteenth Century ◽

Public Opinion ◽

Print Culture ◽

Eighteenth Century Britain

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Native Bondage, Narrative Mobility: African American Accounts of Indian Captivity

Journal of American Studies ◽

10.1017/s0021875821000852 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-25

Author(s):

ASTRID HAAS

Keyword(s):

Eighteenth Century ◽

African American ◽

Print Culture ◽

North American ◽

Captivity Narrative ◽

John Marrant

The article studies African American narratives of indigenous captivity from its emergence in the mid-eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth. Taking accounts by Briton Hammon, John Marrant, Henry Bibb, and James Beckwourth as examples, the essay charts the development of this body of writings, its distinction from white-authored narratives, and its contribution to North American autobiography. In so doing, the article argues that the black-authored texts strategically employed only certain elements of the Indian captivity narrative and that they blended these with aspects of other types of Western autobiography to claim black people's agency and discursive authority in white-dominated print culture.

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