Abstrakt: | The issue of current empirical and methodological self-awareness of bibliology
in relation to the questions of readership and the direction of research
was analyzed based on scientific publications from the past decade. The goal
was to determine what contributes to the specificity and value of bibliological
readership research, at the same time establishing the research needs in this
area. Bibliology seems to synthesize the knowledge of other sciences addressing
research of readership habits to the greatest extent. It incorporates reading
attitudes of the audience (choices, preferences, competences — overall reading
culture); aspects of social communication (the role of a reader in a book’s existence
as its manufacturer, distributor, and consumer); and finally, symbolic culture phenomena (text valuation, creating relevant repertoires — individual,
institutional, and national). Readership processes and phenomena mirror various
aspects of book culture, and book culture itself is both a record of readership
practices and patterns.
The author postulates intensification of research - in both historical and contemporary
aspects — on audiences, which are actual readership communities;
exploration of these communities is necessary for a full, credible description
of model readership communities (women, peasants, gentry…), as well as the
general public (ethnic, local, national…). A narrow understanding of the anthropological
approach to research of book culture phenomena (often limited in
research to a singled-out aspect and type of sources — of biographical nature)
is inappropriately narrow. According to the author, proper bibliology is — to
some extent — anthropology of culture as well. |