Review article
Michael Warner: Development of American Letters and Republican Political Culture Through the Rise of the Press
Violeta M. Janjatović
; State University of Novi Pazar
Abstract
Relying on Michael Warner’s capable research, the article considers the merging and interaction of literature and society, as well as the development of republican culture through the rise of the press. In The Letters of the Republic: Publication and the Public Sphere in Eighteenth-Century America, Warner speaks about a socially and culturally limited public sphere, yet such that allows for the participation of individuals with their printed discourse. This attitude is a significant help in understanding the nature and constraints of republicanism. America became a nation through the development of a new kind of reading public, which required one’s active participation either as a writer or as a reader. Warner further claims that the printing press largely contributed to the emergence of the United States as a nation, whose beginnings are related to the changes that were part of a printing and publishing culture in the 18th century. This new use of printing and printing technology and the development of literacy in Europe from the Renaissance to the 18th century led to significant changes in culture and politics. Warner also emphasizes the extraordinary importance of the press during the period of Revolution which largely influenced the resistance the Americans mounted against the British and which succeeded in fully conditioning people for independence.
Keywords
printing; literature; society; text; context; culture; politics; republicanism
Hrčak ID:
212194
URI
Publication date:
11.12.2018.
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