Soupçon II.v The English H(e)aven: Coffee Houses and the Publishing Industry
"The Rise of the Novel" (1957) by Ian Watt is a definitive text in the field of criticism. As he analyses authors such as Defoe, Richardson, Fielding move away from the archetypes and universal ideals inscribed in the "romances", and instead prefer the realistic mode presenting daily lived lives of real time people, he provides us a panoramic view of the literary-intellectual scenario of the eighteenth century England.
He talks of the unmistakable rise of the aspirational middle class eager for intellectual finesse. This growing non-aristocratic readership preferred individualism and democratic openness, unlike the feudal shackles of the Middle Ages.
The other major factor was women (no longer a part of the production process in the era of the Mercantile and Industrial Revolution, unlike in the agrarian economy) who were eager readers. The increasing literacy rate in this target group and the affordability of books due to the advances in the printing industry created a dynamic intellectual ambience.
The eighteenth century London, given the readership's huge demand for 'knowledge', was the hub of the publishing industry. Alexander Pope's satires such as "Letter to Dr. Arbuthnot", "The Dunciad" provide us ample proof of poetasters bursting with writer-ly pretensions.
Despite such detestable pen-pushers, there was an unmistakable hunger for knowledge, so to say. Thus flourished the publication industry which published novels, newspapers, magazines. Remember, Dr. Johnson and his ''Dictionary"? Thus began, and flourished, professions such as critic-scholar(s), journalists, novelists, and the publishing industry thus grew exponentially.
In Fleet Street, London, publishing cut its umbilical cord with mere printing, and became a profitable business with its own strategies of marketing and distribution. Thus emerged a public sphere of very many discourses because such 'ephemeral' prints as newspapers, magazines, pamphlets need not always necessarily be in mutual agreement.
Coffee houses, also known as "penny universities" ( pay a penny for a hot drink, prefarably coffee and enjoy hours of literary, philosophic, intellectual discussions), allowed 're-views' of most all everything.
The coffee house clientele was not an aristocratic monolith. Unlike the salon, here was a cross section of the entire society which debated along with the intellectuals, authors and journalists. This democratic, egalitarian feel allowed for free flow of ideas, for dissent. Indeed it was hence a h(e)aven for the growth of the public sphere.
Pratima Agnihotri Pune
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