Dr Stevie Marsden S.Marsden@napier.ac.uk
Lecturer
The national lockdowns brought in in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 forced many people to work from home, including journalists, politicians, cultural commentators and celebrities. The familiar faces we would normally expect to see in television studios and sets, were now being beamed into our homes from their homes and we saw their kitchens, offices, and bedrooms. What at first seemed surreal and incongruous, soon became the norm. Viewers could not help but notice the most common: an individual sitting in the foreground with their background displaying shelves or stacks of books. As a result, books and bookshelves became an object du jour, representative of the owner's prestige and cultural cachet. This article argues that far from being a ubiquitous domestic item, such notions are socially constructed and perpetuate books as symbols of classed notions of cultural prestige and intellect.
Marsden, S. (2022). “I take it you’ve read every book on the shelves?” Demonstrating Taste and Class Through Bookshelves in the Time of COVID. English Studies, 103(5), 660-674. https://doi.org/10.1080/0013838X.2022.2087033
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Jun 3, 2022 |
Online Publication Date | Jul 8, 2022 |
Publication Date | 2022 |
Deposit Date | Jun 27, 2022 |
Publicly Available Date | Jun 27, 2022 |
Print ISSN | 0013-838X |
Electronic ISSN | 1744-4217 |
Publisher | Routledge |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 103 |
Issue | 5 |
Pages | 660-674 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1080/0013838X.2022.2087033 |
Keywords | books, COVID-19, bookshelves, class, taste, cultural value |
Public URL | http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2882400 |
“I Take It You’ve Read Every Book On The Shelves?” Demonstrating Taste And Class Through Bookshelves In The Time Of COVID
(1.5 Mb)
PDF
Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Keep Reading and Carry On: Mediated Reading During COVID-19
(2023)
Book Chapter
Literary Prize Cultures: A Fairer Future?
(2023)
Journal Article
About Edinburgh Napier Research Repository
Administrator e-mail: repository@napier.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2025
Advanced Search