Reading Childhood: Collections, Texts, and Visions of Play in the British Country House c.1780-1914

通过一个基于对国家信托财产中未被研究的藏书的实际调查的研究项目，我正在探索从童年到成年读者认同感发展过程中阅读行为的游戏性和游戏性。该项目将探讨十九世纪阅读历史中游戏与严肃、休闲与专业习惯以及儿童与成人之间的关系。考虑到遗产机构经常将儿童书籍与玩具一起分类，对这些收藏中的书名和有证据的阅读活动进行调查将有助于思考书籍不再被视为玩具的界限(或年龄)；何时阅读不再被视为一种游戏形式。我希望定义“玩耍”的阅读行为，挑战人们对“幼稚”行为的贬损而不是庆祝的看法，并最终通过将文学研究与图书情报学科联系起来，为阅读的历史做出贡献。在研究童年阅读中游戏的巨大乐趣和财富时，我突然想到，休闲和工作之间的这种更大的区别对成年人的阅读习惯和参与度有同时的影响；如果一个孩子不是成年人，游戏不是工作，童年与成年是如此不同，那么在以后的生活中，有可能实现玩耍阅读吗？作为一名读者，这种轨迹和衰老的过程将对有关阶级、财富和特权的对话非常感兴趣，同时研究各种国民信托收藏，询问玩耍的自由将如何寻找那些生活舒适的人，同时也考虑到这些家庭中围绕成功和继承的经济压力，以探索儿童阅读看起来不一定是好玩的，反过来，在乡村庄园环境中劳动阶级的阅读行为又是如何比较的。把书放在乡间小屋的图书馆空间里，除了对个别物品进行文学和材料研究外，图书馆也将被视为一种成人游戏室。将图书馆视为成人游戏室，在那里可以进行其他爱好和休闲活动--社交、缝纫、游戏、吸烟--允许考虑成年人在图书馆对喜悦的怀念和渴望。对于一个乡下小屋的孩子来说，目睹了这样的成年，这对他们对阅读在生活中的位置的思考有什么影响？这项工作将首先采取对收藏中的儿童书籍进行亲身实践的书目研究的形式，通过边缘、标记和象征游戏的磨损来寻找参与的证据。汉娜·菲尔德(Hannah Field)的《玩书：维多利亚时代的可移动图画书和儿童读者》(2019年)将在这项研究的历史方面发挥核心作用，其观点是，19世纪的儿童文学让儿童意识到书籍的重要性--它们体现了阅读--引发了进一步的问题，即这对儿童对阅读的思考和作为读者的身份的发展意味着什么。根据藏书本身中某些书籍的内容进行比较分析，也将使我能够考虑图书馆和儿童阅读的代表性，以及在财产中发现的历史证据，并考虑成人对儿童阅读的看法。通过这个以童年和游戏为中心的项目，我努力揭示它们对读者生活的严重影响。

Through a research project grounded in practical investigation into the understudied book collections housed in National Trust properties, I am exploring play and playfulness in reading behaviour during the development of reader identity from childhood to adulthood. The project will interrogate the relationships between play and seriousness, leisure and professionalised habits, and children and adults in nineteenth-century history of reading. In consideration of the frequent categorisation in heritage institutions of children's books alongside toys, a survey of book titles and evidenced reading activity in these collections will contribute to thinking about the boundary (or age) at which books are no longer considered toys; when reading is no longer considered a form of play. I look to define 'playful' reading behaviour, to challenge the derogatory rather than celebratory perception of 'childish' behaviour and, ultimately, to contribute to the history of reading through connecting literary studies with the discipline of Library and Information Science.Whilst examining the immense pleasures and riches of play in childhood reading, it occurs to me that there is a simultaneous effect of this greater distinction between leisure and work on adults' reading habits and engagement; if a child is not an adult, play is not work, and childhood is so distinct from adulthood, is it possible to achieve playful reading in later life? This trajectory and the process of aging as a reader will be of great interest in conversations of class, wealth and privilege while researching various National Trust collections, asking how the freedom to play will look for those of comfortable means while also considering the economic pressure around success and inheritance in such families to explore what children's reading looks like that isn't necessarily playful, and conversely how the reading behaviour of the labouring classes in country estate environments compares. Situating the books in their library spaces in the country houses, beyond the literary and material study of the individual items the library will also be considered as a form of adult playroom. Offering a perspective of the library as an adult playroom where other hobbies and pursuits of leisure occur - socialising, sewing, games, smoking - allows for consideration of the adult's nostalgia and craving for joy in the library. For the children of a country house witnessing such adulthood, what influence does this have on their thinking about the place of reading in their lives? The work will first take the shape of hands-on bibliographical research into the children's books within the collection, seeking evidence of engagement through marginalia, markings and wear-and-tear signifying play. Playing with the Book: Victorian Movable Picture Books and the Child Reader by Hannah Field (2019) will serve as a central aid in the historical aspect of this research, with the idea that nineteenth-century children's literature brought children's awareness to the materiality of books - 'they embody reading' - leading to further questions of what this means for a child's thinking about reading, and the development of their identity as a reader. Comparative analyses on the basis of the content of certain books in the collection itself will also allow me to think about the representation of libraries and childhood reading alongside the historical evidence found in the property, and to consider adult perspectives on children's reading. By centring this project on childhood and play, I endeavour to uncover the seriousness of their impact on the life of a reader.