Peter Kivy 
The Performance of Reading [PDF ebook] 
An Essay in the Philosophy of Literature

The Performance of Reading argues that there are distinct
analogies between ‘silent’ reading and artistic performance, and so
fashions the new role of the reader as performer.

* * An original and insightful exploration of the act of reading by
the leading scholar in the field.

* Discusses the history of reading and the transitions from
reading aloud to reading silently, and the changing role of
literature as communal, active experience to a more private
endeavor.

Table of Content

Preface.

The Performance of Reading.

Notes.

Bibliography.

Index.

About the author

Peter Kivy is Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University and a past president of the American Society for Aesthetics. He is author of The Possessor and the Possessed: Handel, Mozart, Beethovern, and the Idea of Musical Genius (2001), New Essays on Musical Understanding (2001), and Introduction to a Philosophy of Music (2002), and editor of The Blackwell Guide to Aesthetics (Blackwell, 2004).