The Marketplace of Print: Pamphlets and the Public Sphere in Early Modern England.

Alexandra Halasz, (Cambridge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture, 17). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 240 pp. $59.95. ISBN: 0-521-58209-1.

This original and ingenious study makes a substantial contribution to current discussions of early modern cultural change. Focusing on the relatively neglected pamphlet form, Halasz connects a close dissection of individual texts with a broad argument about the nature of print culture. Her challenging analysis merits the attention of historians as well as literary critics.

Halasz argues that early modern pamphlets, though often scorned by both contemporaries and modern scholars, offer a unique perspective on the intersection of cultural production and social reality. In fact, elite authors' contempt for pamphlets was directly related to the latter's status as market commodities; by distancing themselves from such cheap trash, authors distinguished their own discourse as above the market. For Halasz, pamphlet discourse reveals realities that more elevated literature sought to deny - in particular, the fears and tensions raised by the entry of discourse into the free market of print, removed from traditional controls and subject to new economic pressures.

The book's interpretive framework addresses a conception drawn from Jurgen Habermas, the "public sphere" of open exchange of ideas that emerged in the eighteenth century. Halasz takes the public sphere back further, to pamphlets of the sixteenth century, and argues that Habermas's conception needs to take more account of how commercial capitalism not only created the conditions for public distribution of texts, but also infiltrated discourse. In Halasz's view, the conflicts over discursive authority introduced by the print market shaped both structure and content of the public sphere, excluding certain participants and constructing an imagined openness and independence for those that remained.

Halasz focuses on pamphlet texts from the 1590s and early 1600s, with extended analyses of several exemplary texts. Henry Chettle's Kind-Hartes Dreame forms the center for a discussion of the literary market, particularly tensions between market forces and authorial control. A flurry of pamphlets exchanged between Gabriel Harvey and Thomas Nashe reveals conflicts over the grounding of discursive authority, with the older patrimonial model confronting a valuation based on labor and talent. The fiction of Thomas Deloney picks up the theme of artisanal labor, with an intriguing discussion of the role of gossip as a figure for non-authoritative discourse. (Quibblers may note that Deloney's novels are not exactly pamphlets, but Halasz can appeal to his extensive activities as a ballad-writer to connect him with the culture of ephemeral print.) Halasz's readings are always inventive and stimulating.

The book does have a serious drawback in its over-laborious and jargon-laden style. This language will hamper communication with the uninitiated, and will make some of the book slow going even for insiders. Readers from outside the field of literary criticism will find the opening chapter more accessible than the densely argued sections focused on individual texts. My other criticisms are directed at Cambridge University Press. The book should have had more careful copy editing; there are too many minor lapses of spelling and usage. Also, when the notes refer the reader to the bibliography, they should be at the bottom of the page, or the reader is put to the annoyance of looking the reference up twice.

A short review cannot do justice to the nuances of Halasz's work. It is not easy to read, but it is full of interesting ideas, including Halasz's suggestion of the parallels between our current historical moment and the early modern leap in discursive technology. This impressive book adds an important perspective to the picture of early modern culture.

JOY WILTENBURG Rowan University