This study focuses on the concept of reading culture. The authors attempt to define its content and scope, while setting it within the context of contemporary issues (such as the digital revolution). They also take account of the key fixed ideas associated with the “reader” and “reading” concepts, while paying specific attention to the opposition of the empirical reader and model reader. They also base their conception of reading culture on a critical comparison with such associated concepts as book culture, written culture, literary culture and media culture, while focusing on the concept of culture itself, particularly on why they have decided on it, as culture might even be considered — in the sense of British cultural studies — to be anything that is communicated (read), and not just produced (written). Hence culture involves the circulation, range, extent and the entire ecosystem of relations and their media. It is the sphere of meaning that is received and not just emitted. One of the features of reading culture — according to the authors — involves the not entirely straightforward search for trace /testimonies, so the authors present a table showing individual trace /testimonies classified from direct empirical proofs to quite indirect ones. The main advantage of the reading culture concept is considered by the authors to be that it integrates all the activities associated with reception (direct and mediated, clear and disputed, complete and partial), so that it presents the entire range of personal testimonies, statistical data, institutions such as school and censorship, the book market and public libraries, discourse on reading, reader iconography and so forth. and Studie se zaměřuje na koncept čtenářské kultury. Autoři se snaží vymezit jeho obsah a dosah, to vše pak zasadit do problémů současné doby (digitální revoluce). Všímají si také základních utkvělých představ, s nimiž je koncept čtenáře a čtení spojován; specifickou pozornost věnují protikladu čtenáře empirického a modelového. Svou koncepci čtenářské kultury opírají také o kritické srovnání s příbuznými koncepty, jako jsou knižní kultura, kultura písma, literární kultura, mediální kultura. Věnují se i samotnému pojmu kultura, především proč se pro ni rozhodli. Za kulturu je totiž možno považovat – v duchu britských cultural studies – až to, co je sdíleno (čteno), nikoli pouze produkováno (psáno). Kultura tak představuje oběh, dosah, rozsah, čili ekosystém vztahů a jejich nositelů. Je to sféra významu recipovaných, nikoli pouze emitovaných. Jedním z rysů čtenářské kultury – soudí autoři – je ne úplně snadné vyhledávání stop/svědectví, proto nabízejí tabulku, v níž jsou jednotlivé stopy/svědectví seřazeny od empirických přímých důkazů až k těm zcela nepřímým. Za hlavní výhodu konceptu čtenářské kultury autoři považují, že integruje všechny činnosti týkající se recepce (přímé i zprostředkované, jasné i sporné, celostní i dílčí); je tedy úhrnem osobních svědectví, statistických dat, institucí jako škola či cenzura, knižní trh či veřejné knihovny, diskurs o čtení, čtenářská ikonografie atd.
The study focuses on the history of the regional, royal and dowry town of Hradec Králové in the latter years of the Enlightenment, at the end of the first stage of the formation of the modern Czech nation. Within the small territory of this fortress town, the seat of both regional authorities and a bishopric, there was a tertiary, secondary and primary school, a printing house and a theatre. At the episcopal seminary, grammar school (Gymnasium) and main school (Hauptschule), the teaching staff were connected with a petite bourgeoisie that had potential to participate in the future national movement. Graduates of the episcopal seminary and the Hradec Králové grammar school became an educated social elite who later used their cultural and social capital in various areas of religious and cultural life, in state or ecclesiastical administration. Although taught in Latin and German, and despite the growing importance of the German language as a means of communication among state and private employees, these men went on to play an active part in the formation of the modern Czech nation. At the same time, the Hauptschule provided essential skills in literacy and numeracy for multitudes of young people, teaching them the fundamentals of Czech and biblical history, natural science, and even the basics of Latin. The development of amateur theatre (the first documented amateur theatre performance in Hradec Králové, in which townspeople and officers participated, dates back to 1790; the theatre company acquired its own building six years later), and the establishment of a publishing house (formerly a printers), as well as the creation of a readers’ community, were important for the acceleration of social communication – a prerequisite for the formation of a civic society.