Writing and Society

<p><em>Writing and Society</em> is a stunning exploration of the relationship between the growth in popular literacy and the development of new readerships and the authors addressing them. It is the first single volume to provide a year-by-year chronology of political events in relation to cultural production.<br>This overview of debates in literary critical theory and historiography includes facsimile pages with commentary from the most influential books of the period. The author describes and analyses:<br>* the development of literacy by status gender and region in Britain<br>* structures of patronage and censorship<br>* the fundamental role of the publishing industry<br>* the relation between elite literary and popular cultures<br>* and the remarkable growth of female literacy and publication.</p>