By Touch Alone
By Touch Alone demonstrates how reading by touch not only changed the lives of nineteenth-century blind people, but also challenged longstanding perceptions about blindness and reading. Over the course of the nineteenth century, thousands of blind people learned how to read by touch. Using fiction,...
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| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Online |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Michigan State University Press
2026
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/171551 |
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| _version_ | 1869519379862913024 |
|---|---|
| author | Warne, Vanessa Warne, Vanessa Kay |
| author_browse | Warne, Vanessa Warne, Vanessa Kay |
| author_facet | Warne, Vanessa Warne, Vanessa Kay |
| author_sort | Warne, Vanessa |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | By Touch Alone demonstrates how reading by touch not only changed the lives of nineteenth-century blind people, but also challenged longstanding perceptions about blindness and reading. Over the course of the nineteenth century, thousands of blind people learned how to read by touch. Using fiction, essays, letters, and speeches authored by blind readers, By Touch Alone traces the ways in which literacy changed blind people's experiences of education, leisure, spirituality, and social engagement. Analyzing records of activism and innovation as well as frustration, this study documents the development of an inkless book culture shaped by blind readers’ preferences and needs. While By Touch Alone features the writing and ideas of an understudied community of nineteenth-century blind authors, innovators, and activists, it also engages the work of sighted authors such as George Eliot and Rudyard Kipling to explore the culture-wide effects of reading by touch. The emergence of a new category of readers who did not rely on sight to read prompted sighted people to reimagine blindness and adopt more progressive attitudes toward blind people. In our own era, one characterized by the increasing digitization of our reading lives, Vanessa Warne’s exploration positions scholars and blind readers to navigate present-day developments and shape the future of their reading lives. A carefully contextualized study of how reading by touch shaped Victorian culture, By Touch Alone adds new chapters to the history of disability and reading. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-171551 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | Michigan State University Press |
| publisherStr | Michigan State University Press |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-1715512026-02-12T10:37:46Z By Touch Alone Warne, Vanessa Warne, Vanessa Kay Social Science / General thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general By Touch Alone demonstrates how reading by touch not only changed the lives of nineteenth-century blind people, but also challenged longstanding perceptions about blindness and reading. Over the course of the nineteenth century, thousands of blind people learned how to read by touch. Using fiction, essays, letters, and speeches authored by blind readers, By Touch Alone traces the ways in which literacy changed blind people's experiences of education, leisure, spirituality, and social engagement. Analyzing records of activism and innovation as well as frustration, this study documents the development of an inkless book culture shaped by blind readers’ preferences and needs. While By Touch Alone features the writing and ideas of an understudied community of nineteenth-century blind authors, innovators, and activists, it also engages the work of sighted authors such as George Eliot and Rudyard Kipling to explore the culture-wide effects of reading by touch. The emergence of a new category of readers who did not rely on sight to read prompted sighted people to reimagine blindness and adopt more progressive attitudes toward blind people. In our own era, one characterized by the increasing digitization of our reading lives, Vanessa Warne’s exploration positions scholars and blind readers to navigate present-day developments and shape the future of their reading lives. A carefully contextualized study of how reading by touch shaped Victorian culture, By Touch Alone adds new chapters to the history of disability and reading. 2026-02-12T10:37:42Z 2026-02-12T10:37:42Z 2025 book 9780472905089 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/171551 eng Michigan State University Press aa7f6664-5117-41d8-90f8-c3af56526b92 9780472905089 open access |
| spellingShingle | Social Science / General thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general Warne, Vanessa Warne, Vanessa Kay By Touch Alone |
| title | By Touch Alone |
| title_full | By Touch Alone |
| title_fullStr | By Touch Alone |
| title_full_unstemmed | By Touch Alone |
| title_short | By Touch Alone |
| title_sort | by touch alone |
| topic | Social Science / General thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general |
| topic_facet | Social Science / General thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general |
| url | https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/171551 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT warnevanessa bytouchalone AT warnevanessakay bytouchalone |