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Reading matter and the matter of reading in Gissing’s fiction

Greenslade, William

Authors

William Greenslade



Contributors

Christine Huguet
Editor

Abstract

This chapter revisits George Gissing’s handling of reading practices within the realist frame of his practice as a novelist to show the variety of reality effects linked to reading matter and the reading subject – the choice of books, their location on the shelf, table or in the hand, the reader’s attitude and physical relation to the book. Gissing’s figures not only read but are ‘read’ by their reading matter, offering evidence of their state of mind, their cultural and educational situation and their bearing to the world. Some of these attitudes and practices are explored in relation to the contemporary ‘reading problem’ which identifies mass literacy and ‘frivolous, feeble’ reading habits as symptoms of a problematic modernity. It is through his particularised representation of reading that Gissing successfully encodes and captures such contemporary uncertainties.

Citation

Greenslade, W. (2010). Reading matter and the matter of reading in Gissing’s fiction. In C. Huguet (Ed.), Writing Otherness: The Pathways of George Gissing’s Imagination (173-188). Equilibris

Publication Date Jan 1, 2010
Peer Reviewed Not Peer Reviewed
Pages 173-188
Book Title Writing Otherness: The Pathways of George Gissing’s Imagination
ISBN 9789059760127
Keywords reading matter, Gissing, fiction
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/985208