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History of reading tutorial 2: The reading and reception of literary texts – a case study of Robinson Crusoe

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History of reading tutorial 2: The reading and reception of literary texts – a case study of Robinson Crusoe
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How have famous books been read and received by audiences in the past? This free course, History of reading tutorial 2: The reading and reception of literary texts a case study of Robinson Crusoe, is the second tutorial in a series designed to help users of the UK Reading Experience Database (UK RED) search, browse and use this resource, and explores the use of historical evidence to understand the reading and reception of a literary text, in this case Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe. The first tutorial in this series (Red_1) shows how historians have uncovered evidence of reading in the past, while the next tutorial (Red_3) demonstrates how evidence of a writers reading can add to our understanding of their literary output. UK RED is a resource built and maintained at The Open University.

Course learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

  • locate data in UK RED to help study the reading and reception of a literary text
  • analyse individual reading experiences contained in UK RED
  • understand how evidence from UK RED might be incorporated into arguments about the wider significance of reading as a cultural practice.

First Published: 09/08/2012

Updated: 16/02/2016

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