Analysis finds proportion of female authors and characters fell after 19th century, with male authors remaining ‘remarkably resistant’ to writing women Women in novels have tended to “feel”, while men “get”; women smile or laugh, while men grin or chuckle. An analysis of more than 100,000 novels spanning more than 200 years shows how gendered even seemingly innocuous words can be – as well as revealing an unexpected decline in the proportion of female novelists from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century.Academics from the universities of Illinois and California at Berkeley used an algorithm to examine 104,000 works of fiction dating from 1780 to 2007, drawn mostly from HathiTrust Digital Library. The algorithm identified both author and character genders. The academics expected to see an increase in the prominence of female characters in literature across the two centuries. Instead, “from the 19th century through the early 1960s we see a story of steady decline,” write Ted Underwood, David Bamman and Sabrina Lee in their paper The Transformation of Gender in English-Language Fiction, which has just been published in the Journal of Cultural Analytics.No one has been willing to advance the dismal suggestion that the whole story from 1800 to 1960 was a story of declineOn average, men remain remarkably resistant to giving women more than a third of the character-space in their stories Related: Pushing back: why it's time for women to rewrite the story Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2018-02-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Thirteen novels, including "The Good Earth,'' which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932, will be published in ebook format by Open Road Integrated Media. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2012-06-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The intensely private Thomas Pynchon has resisted the electronic format for his books – until now. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-06-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Thomas Pynchon, author of “Gravity’s Rainbow” and “The Crying of Lot 49,” characteristically declined to speak about his decision. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2012-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The folks at Gannett, the newspaper publisher best known as the people who bring you USA Today, also want to be known for online sports. Here’s another move in that direction: The company’s USA Today Sports Media Group has acquire ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-06-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Dana Johnson's first novel explores the space between reinvention and ruin through the eyes of the child of African Americans who migrated from the South to L.A.Elsewhere, California Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Author Ian Rankin has revealed that his next novel Standing in Another Man’s Grave will see... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new novel by Stephen King, Joyland, is to be published by Titan Books imprint Hard Case Crime... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Bodley Head has acquired UK rights at auction to a book about Bo Xilai, the former governor... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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TV shows and Hollywood blockbusters aren't America's only cultural exports. The book industry is also expanding overseas, according to a report released Friday by the Association of American Publishers that looks at book exports for the first time. Exports by U.S. publishers, which are dominated... Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2012-05-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Nearly a third of British adults (31%) say they are likely to buy an ebook in the next six... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez examine the nature of their relationship and the ways it's shaped their lives in their loving, candid new memoir.Martin Sheen was a struggling 21-year-old stage actor when his first son Emilio was born. Sheen, seventh of 10 children in a family that knew him as... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-05-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Quercus' Heron Books imprint has acquired three novels by Ottakar's founder James Heneage... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins has bought world rights in The Real Lady Detective Agency, an account of a true-... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A petition calling on education secretary Michael Gove to prevent severe cutbacks to the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Microsoft seems to have found an open window back into the ebook business, closing the door on an ongoing patent dispute with its new partner. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-04-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Atlantic Books editor-in-chief Ravi Mirchandani signed a deal at LBF for world rights including... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The trade paperback format lost some ground to ebooks through the first nine months of 2011, according to Bowker Market Research, but it remained the most popular print category. Still, the question being asked is what consumer segment the trade paperback is serving in a time when ebooks often... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Approximately a dozen women’s presses are actively publishing in the U.S. today, down from about 30 during the 1990s, when feminist publishing and bookselling were at their peak. There are, additionally, several women’s presses sporadically publishing, and a few others putting out regional... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon announced that it has purchased the North American rights to Ian Fleming's James Bond books. James Bond, of course, is the debonair British superspy 007, played on film by a number of actors, including Sean Connery (above). Under the agreement, Amazon will retain republication rights for... Continue reading at Baltimore Sun
[ Baltimore Sun | 2012-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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British novelist E L James' much-discussed erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey (Arrow) has... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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