Virtual Event | Play with Language and the Nonsense of Alphabet Books
Play with Language and the Nonsense of Alphabet Books - Victorian England and Beyond
Robin Hoffman
Alphabet books are odd! A flood of these books were published in North America and Great Britain during the nineteenth century, and they听continue to be so popular today that we鈥檝e forgotten how odd the form is鈥攁nd how irrational the rules of reading and writing in English can be.听
Join Robin Hoffman for an exploration of听the alphabet book as a Victorian publishing phenomenon that helped shape our current understanding of literacy and which audiences read (or look at) which books. We鈥檒l pay particular attention to the illustrated verses of Edward Lear, who truly understood the nonsense of 鈥渁lphabetical order鈥� and the appeal of alphabet books for adults.
Robin Hoffman's听research focuses on Victorian picture books and print culture, exploring how ideas about childhood and literacy intersected with developments in printing technology to shape materials published for both children and adults in nineteenth-century Great Britain. She is currently Editor in the Publishing Department at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she works with curatorial departments to produce exhibitions, catalogues, and didactics about a wide range of subjects and artists, focusing particularly on the holdings of Ryerson and Burnham Libraries. She was previously Assistant Curator and Assistant Head of Publications at the Yale Center for British Art. Her recent publications include 鈥淭he Dangerous Alphabet and the Dark Side of Victorian Domesticity,鈥� in The Victorian Period in 21st Century Children鈥檚 and Adolescent Literature (2018); the introduction to Georgian and Victorian Board Games: The Liman Collection (2017); and 鈥淭he Means and End(s) of Spelling Reform in the Victorian Press,鈥� in a special issue of Victorian Periodicals Review (Winter 2017). A longtime member of the Children's Literature Association, she has taught university classes on the history of childhood, illustration, and women in literature, among other topics.
Virtual event听begins at 12听PM (EST)
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