Early Modern Prose Fiction

<p>Emphasizing the significance of early modern prose fiction as a hybrid genre that absorbed cultural ideological and historical strands of the age this fascinating study brings together an outstanding cast of critics including: Sheila T. Cavanaugh Stephen Guy-Bray Mary Ellen Lamb Joan Pong Linton Steve Mentz Constance C. Relihan Goran V. Stanivukovic with an afterword from Arthur Kinney.</p><p>Each of the essays in this collection considers the reciprocal relation of early modern prose fiction to class distinctions examining factors such as: </p><ul> <li>the impact of prose fiction on the social political and economic fabric of early modern England </li> <li>the way in which a growing emphasis on literacy allowed for increased class mobility and newly flexible notions of class </li> <li>how the popularity of reading and the subsequent demand for books led to the production and marketing of books as an industry </li> <li>complications for critics of prose fiction as it began to be considered an inferior and trivial art form. </li> </ul><p>Early modern prose fiction had a huge impact on the social and economic fabric of the time creating a new culture of reading and writing for pleasure which became accessible to those previously excluded from such activities resulting in a significant challenge to existing class structures.</p>