Representation and Reality: A Study of Novel Reading in Post-Enlightenment Scotland, 1800-1837

在1800年至1837年间，小说在多大程度上、以何种方式被视为一种改进的文学形式？苏格兰小说家玛丽·布伦顿、苏珊·费里尔、约翰·高尔特、伊丽莎白·汉密尔顿、詹姆斯·霍格和沃尔特·司各特所呈现的小说阅读的影响在多大程度上、以何种方式反映在当代读者的借用倾向上？这些倾向在多大程度上以及以何种方式揭示了启蒙运动后苏格兰读者行为的区域趋势？这个项目的中心是小说阅读和改进形式之间的关系，这是启蒙运动后苏格兰文化和思想所固有的。后启蒙运动时期--在这里被定义为从1800年到1837年--构成了小说的经典化和普及化的关键阶段，最显著的标志是斯科特在19世纪10年代中期进入文学舞台，随后是印刷量的大幅扩张和小说在苏格兰订阅图书馆的兴起。在世纪早期，小说的主题往往是进步，但小说阅读的行为在多大程度上被认为是“进步”，这一点一直存在争议。例如，在布伦顿的《自我控制》（1811）和费里尔的《继承》（1824）中，阅读被认为是一种催化行为，通过这种行为，个体读者可以培养和展示他们思想的开明状态。这种自我改善的行为参与了一个更大的过程，通过这个过程，国家应该“改善”。然而，它们与过度或不明智的阅读的危险同时存在，特别是对于女性和下层阶级的读者。例如，高尔特在《婚约》（1823）中反思了年轻女性阅读小说的危险，尽管这是讽刺性的。事实上，这些危险经常在小说中讨论，表面上是出于说教的原因，让读者参与到关于阅读小说后果的元话语中。

To what extent and in what ways was the novel presented as an improving form of literature between the years 1800 and 1837?To what extent and in what ways are the effects of novel reading presented by Scottish novelists Mary Brunton, Susan Ferrier, John Galt, Elizabeth Hamilton, James Hogg, and Walter Scott reflected in the borrowing tendencies of contemporary readers?To what extent and in what ways do these tendencies reveal regional trends in post-Enlightenment Scottish readership behaviour? This project centres upon a relationship between novel reading and forms of improvement that was intrinsic to post-Enlightenment Scottish culture and thinking. The post-Enlightenment period - defined here as running from 1800 to 1837 - constituted a pivotal stage in the canonisation and popularisation of the novel, marked most notably by Scott's seismic entrance onto the literary scene during the mid-1810s, followed by a major expansion in print runs and the rise of the novel within subscription libraries in Scotland. Whilst improvement was often the subject of novels during the early nineteenth century, the extent to which the act of novel reading was considered 'improving' was much debated. In Brunton's Self-Control (1811) and Ferrier's The Inheritance (1824), for example, reading is presented as a catalytic act through which the individual reader might both cultivate and demonstrate the enlightened state of their mind. Such acts of self-improvement participated in a larger process by which the nation was supposed to 'improve'. However, they existed alongside the perceived dangers of excessive or injudicious reading, especially with regard to women and lower-class readers. Galt, for example, reflects - albeit satirically - upon the dangers of young women reading novels in The Entail (1823). Indeed, such dangers were often discussed within novels for ostensibly didactic reasons, engaging readers in a meta-discourse about the consequences of reading fiction.