THE CONTEXT AND MEANING OF POPULAR LITERACY: SOME EVIDENCE FROM NINETEENTH-CENTURY RURAL ENGLAND

1991 ◽  
Vol 131 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Reay
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Popular Literacy ◽  
Rural England

‘Cut down by some cowardly miscreants’: Plant Maiming, or the Malicious Cutting of Flora, as an Act of Protest in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Rural England

Rural History ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
CARL J. GRIFFIN
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Malicious Attacks ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Southern England ◽  
Subsequent Research ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Rural England

AbstractSince the publication of Hobsbawm and Rudé'sCaptain Swingour understanding of the role(s) of covert protests in Hanoverian rural England has advanced considerably. Whilst we now know much about the dramatic practices of incendiarism and animal maiming and the voices of resistance in seemingly straightforward acquisitive acts, one major gap remains. Despite the fact that almost thirty years have passed since E. P. Thompson brought to our attention that under the notorious ‘Black Act’ the malicious cutting of trees was a capital offence, no subsequent research has been published. This paper seeks to address this major lacuna by systematically analysing the practices and patterns of malicious attacks on plants (‘plant maiming’) in the context of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century southern England. It is shown that not only did plant maiming take many different forms, attacking every conceivable type of flora, but also that it was universally understood and practised. In some communities plant maiming was the protestors' weapon of choice. As a social practice it therefore embodied wider community beliefs regarding the defence of plebeian livelihoods and identities.

‘Gnawing it Out’: A New Look at Economic Relations in Nineteenth-Century Rural England

Rural History ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mick Reed
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Factors Of Production ◽  
Money Price ◽  
Rural England ◽  
Total Market ◽  
New Look

Markets are ubiquitous, dominant, integrating all production nationally: that is interlocking markets in a national purchase and sale network at money price, organised on an economy-wide basis, a market network essential to all industrial and agricultural lines of production… Practically all farm output was sold for cash. All factors of production, land, labour, tools, transport, artificial fertilisers, were available on national markets for purchase at money price… Here we have total market dependence, for livelihood and the ubiquitous use of cash.

The ‘Ritual’ and ‘Satanic’ Abuse of Children: Crop circles and the organised abuse of children require a careful and considered approach

1992 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Goddard
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Road ◽  
English Poet ◽  
The Past ◽  
English Population ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Times ◽  
Rural England

If you go down to the woods today…Matthew Arnold (1822–1888), the nineteenth-century English poet, wrote about the live murmur of a summer’s day’, presumably referring to bees, birds and other bugs humming around the countryside. A twentieth-century American (whom I believe to be a poet though not all would agree) wrote that The Times They Are A-Changin’ (1963). Nowhere have they changed more than in the English countryside. In 1991, it was the ‘live murmur’ of the summer’s night that was more likely to be heard. Out in fertile rural England the English people have discovered crop circles in their cornfields.It is good to be in England in (the admittedly all-too-brief) summer, but quiet evenings in cornfields sleeping off the effects of English ales are a thing of the past. These days, find a cornfield and you will find half the media and a sizeable chunk of the English population. In some country areas, they say, it is quieter sitting in the middle of the road because you avoid the crowds. Crop circles in cornfields have seized the imagination of the public.

Victorian Subjects - Subjectivities: A History of Self-Representation in Britain, 1832–1920. By Regina Gagnier. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. $35.00. - The Rise of Popular Literacy in Victorian England: The Influence of Private Choice and Public Policy. By David F. Mitch. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992. Pp. xxiii + 340. $34.95. - “Shattered Nerves”: Doctors, Patients, and Depression in Victorian England. By Janet Oppenheim. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. Pp. viii + 388. $27.95. - Love in the Time of Victoria: Sexuality, Class and Gender in Nineteenth-Century London. By Francoise Barret-Ducrocq. Translated by John Howe. New York: Verso, 1991. Pp. 225. $29.95. - Limited Livelihoods: Gender and Class in Nineteenth-Century England. By Sonya O. Rose. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992. Pp. 303. $39.95. - Actresses as Working Women: Their Social Identity in Victorian Culture. By Tracy Davis. New York: Routledge, Chapman & Hall, 1991. Pp. vxi + 200. $49.95. - The Making of Victorian Drama. By Anthony Jenkins. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. xi + 301. $49.50.

1995 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 412-422
Author(s):  
Dina M. Copelman
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New York ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
University Of Pennsylvania ◽  
Victorian Culture ◽  
Victorian England ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Popular Literacy ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Oxford University Press

scholarly journals The Uses of Multimedia: Three Digital Literacy Case Studies

2008 ◽  
Vol 128 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hartley ◽  
Kelly McWilliam ◽  
Jean Burgess ◽  
John Banks
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Digital Storytelling ◽  
Online Game ◽  
Massively Multiplayer Online Game ◽  
Consumer Agency ◽  
Popular Literacy

We identify some tensions between formal education and informal learning in the uses of popular literacy since the nineteenth century, in order to argue for a ‘demand-led’ model of education in digital literacy. We go on to analyse three case studies — digital storytelling, the Flickr photosharing site and the MMOG (massively multiplayer online game) Fury — to discuss issues arising from demand-led learning, which requires a procedural (not propositional) model of knowledge, a vernacular and informal model of creativity, and a ‘navigator’ and entrepreneurial model of consumer agency. In light of these examples, the article raises the question of how digital literacy can and should be taught.

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