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Envoi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2026

Vincent Quinn
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Summary

Responding to Franco Moretti’s theory of ‘distant reading’, this chapter argues for an approach to reading that can combine a respect for non-specialist readers with a post-structuralist scepticism about humanism. It takes Cornelia Parker’s artful work on Magna Carta as a paradigm of how theories of reading and interpretation need to find ways of acknowledging the importance of humour and playfulness in the reading experience.

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Chapter
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Reading
A cultural practice
 , pp. 184 - 193
Publisher: Manchester University Press
First published in: 2026

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