美国读书会发展历史探究

The History of American Book Clubs

首先,梳理美国读书会的几个发展时期并分析其特点:女性读书会时期,发展初期阻力较大,阅读内容多种多样,一度引发阅读热潮,以中产阶级的女性为主,发展后期更加关注公共事务;经典阅读时期,发端于大学的经典阅读课程,采取群体研讨的模式,由大学推广到社会公众,成为人们生活的重要组成部分;多元化时期,参与人群多元,经典读物与大众读物并重,实体读书会与网络读书会并行,深度融入生活。其次,分析美国读书会发展的推动因素:女性在美国读书会发展上占有举足轻重的地位,电视、网络和社交媒体成为图书推广的重要模式,公共图书馆在读书会发展的各个方面都发挥着不可忽视的重要作用,政府的支持为读书会的顺利开展奠定了坚实的基础、促进了读书会的流行。最后,简单介绍美国学术界关于读书会的研究情况。

This paper gives a description of the historical development of American book clubs and makes an analysis of their features. In the Women Book Club Period, the early de- velopment of the clubs was faced with quite great resistance, the reading content was various, enthusiasm for reading was aroused, the female readers were mainly from the middle class and more attention of the clubs was give to public affairs in their later development. In the Classic Reading Period, the classic reading courses and the pattern of group discussion which originated from universities were extended to the public and became an important part of people＇s life. In the Diversity Period, the readers are diversified, equal attention is laid to classic and popular readings, physical and online book clubs co-exist and reading is fused into real life. Besides, this paper analyzes the factors which have facilitated the development of American book clubs and concludes that women have played a crucial part in the develop- ment, TV, network and social media are the important ways to promote reading, public li- braries have played an indispensable role in all aspects of the development, and the support from government has laid a solid foundation for the development and facilitated the popular- ization of book clubs. Finally, the paper gives a brief account of the research on book clubs in the USA