Reading mania
The Reading Mania | 17th and 18th centuries
•Increase in literacy rate
•Schools set up by Churches of different denominations
•Virtual reading mania
•New forms of popular literature – Penny chapbooks, Biliotheque Blue, Almanacs or ritual calendars
•Periodical Press – Newspapers, Magazines
•Ideas of Scientists and Philosophers spread easily
Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world
•Louise Sebastien Mercier(France), a novelist in the 18th century gave the statement.
•He declared that the Printing press is the most powerful engine of progress and public opinion and it is the force that will sweep despotism away.
•Books were means of spreading progress and enlightenment
•Power of print
•Destruction of despotism and tyranny
•In many of his novels , the heroes were shown getting transformed by the act of reading.
Print Culture and the French Revolution
•Popularised the ideas of the enlightenment thinkers(Rousseau, Voltaire, Montesquieu etc)
•A new culture of dialogue and debate
•Mocking the Royalty
•Monarchical and church propaganda exposed
•Opened up possibility of thinking differently