In a constantly shifting cultural landscape, from the global rise of right-wing conservatism to the stronghold of the age of everything online, understanding the importance of the act of reading is more important than ever. With that in mind, here are some articles that explore and challenge our relationship to reading.
“Reading is an Essential to Political Power” By Hanfu Mi
In the wake of the election and recognition in the rise of the planned book bans of the Republican party, it is crucial to recognise the inherent politicism of literature. This article analyses the intersection between literacy and social freedom, and briefly highlights the way that literature continues to be used as a form of activism and the historical problem of literary censorship to restrict social mobility.
“On the Bad Binary of ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Literature” By Josh Cook
This article takes the notion that reading is always political one step further and brings to the surface ideas of what we view as “good” and “bad” taste. An extremely interesting perspective about the illusion of literary choice in education and the accessibility of certain literature, Cook explores how the ideas of good and bad taste have been weaponized to uphold systems of power explores
“The Physical Traits That Define Men and Women in Literature” By Erin Davis
This thought-provoking article extracts data from 2,000 Pulitzer-winning novels published between 1008 and 2020 to explore the subconscious way gendered language is used in descriptions of men and women. Showing, for example, the disparity between specific adjectives used, she points out the importance of awareness of these subconscious written biases and how they tie to a wider history of gendered stereotypes.
“Art is for Seeing Evil” By Agnes Callard
In a longer-form article, Callard uses the examples of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina to explore the way that literature shapes our cultural view of morality. She argues against the notion that art should fit a strict moral test and for the purpose of it to be to explore the complexity of human relationships.
“Book girl summer: Why brands are leaning into the literary world” By Madeline Schulz
In a fascinating piece about the intersection between commence, fashion and literature, Madeline Schulz dissects the growing trend of brands such as Miu Miu and Saint Laurent beginning to use literature as a form of marketing strategy. The article is both a critique of the capitalisation of reading and an affirmation of the way that consumers seek more meaningful and intellectual connections to the items they buy.
“We’re All Reading Wrong” By Alexandra Moe
We’re always hearing about the practical benefits of reading and its improvement on our daily cognitive abilities- this article, however, delves into the historical cultural shift of reading from a verbal and communal to a silent, solitary practice, It argues for health benefits that rise from verbal reading, from improvements in our memory to our mood to our relationship with others.
“Umberto’s Interlibrary; Why Unread Books Are More Valuable To Our Lives than Read Ones” By Maria Popova
Referring to Umberto Eco’s coined concept of the ‘anti-library’ as a collection of owned books that haven’t been read, this article analyses the paradox of the more we read, the more we realise how little we know, and that the way to expand our knowledge is to be made aware of the things we don’t know; concluding with the simple message of the overall importance of reading.
“Newspapers B&W (5)” by NS Newsflash is licensed under CC BY 2.0.