The title varies. In the History & Classics section of the website it's titled "Books and the Home: Literary Taste as an Expression of Female Identity." I've used the title at the top of the essay itself.
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The Mass Observation (MO) archive, a collection of intimate, first-person narratives, offers unique insights into the different ways in which books and reading habits allow interwar and postwar women to negotiate and express identity in the safety of the domestic sphere, a traditionally feminine realm. By situating women’s reading practices within broader historical developments in literacy, publishing, and gender roles, the essay examines how reading functioned as means of asserting individuality and personal autonomy. First, this paper will provide a concise summary of shifts in publishing, literacy, and literary taste, followed by a case study of Mills & Boon readers in the late 1980s and early 1990s, focusing on the social negotiations involved when women read for pleasure. While the activity of reading is not always confined to the home, the strong material and emotional attachments women express towards their books highlight that these objects often provide a unique source of comfort. The book itself therefore functioned as a portable ‘home away from home,’ which reinforced the twentieth-century reader’s sense of self wherever she may be.
This paper will engage with responses to the MO 1988 Autumn Directive Part 1 and the 1993 Spring Directive Part 2, which ask respondents about their favourite pastimes and reading habits.The idiosyncratic nature of the MO material underscores the importance of avoiding any singular or universal notion of the female experience. Women’s engagements with books and reading were shaped by class, age, and race; and although the MO archive offers limited background information for each respondent, it nonetheless provides valuable insight into the diverse ways women asserted personal autonomy through their literary choices. (46)
The title varies. In the History & Classics section of the website it's titled "Books and the Home: Literary Taste as an Expression of Female Identity." I've used the title at the top of the essay itself.
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