| dc.description.abstract | In this thesis, I explore the many forms of the practices of reading among common readers in 19th-century Norway. I will argue that various forms of pious readings, which were all concentrated on affirming or obtaining salvation with different understandings of texts and reading dictating their logics, dominated the first half of the century. These readings were founded on different logics. While some readers believed that the words of their texts were intertwined with the world it described, and thereby read to shorten the distance to God, other readers sought to memorise religious texts to make them appear as spontaneous aphorisms revealing parts of the revelations to themselves and others. Both logics constructed and maintained various notions of authority, hierarchies, and performative aspects of reading. The dominance of pious reading was based on what functions the written and the spoken word served according to common readers. While the spoken word functioned as the vessel of news, practical information, and entertainment, the written word was limited to religious texts. This distribution of functions allowed for pious readers to be unaware of other understandings of the role of the written word.
As the century progressed, I argue that the balance of the written and the spoken word was disturbed by public libraries and the advent of mass print. Public libraries were founded and administered by different groups with varying interests but they were all united in a belief that texts could have positive effects on its readers. The libraries therefore became a tool for the expansion of the written word, aimed at the increasing numbers of common readers that encountered them. Parallel to the rise of public libraries, the conditions of print were changing. The bottlenecks that had halted production were opened up, allowing the volume of production to increase and the prices to fall. The gradual cheapening of print steadily increased the functions of the written word and magnified its importance through its proliferation.
The expansion of the importance of the written word precipitated varying responses from common readers. Obstinate readers refused to accept the changes, and adhered to their practices in spite of systematic and individual attempts at expanding their understanding of the written word. Other readers accepted the changing textual landscape and developed practices to make sense of the new texts. This was a process of gradual adaptation, aided by the texts’ initial mimicking of the readers’ existing practices. By the end of the century, a majority of common readers had turned fickle, disregarding the old boundaries of the written word and reading without any allegiances. | |