What’s a recitation?

In the broadest sense, the recitation was a popular cultural activity in the 19th and early 20th centuries and involved an individual declaiming (or ‘reciting’) a piece of writing (usually not their own) to an audience. Of course, this practice has affinities with cultural practices both earlier and later (and during), but it was in the 19th century that recitation became both a predominant form of entertainment in the home and theatre circuit, an important component of the educational system, and a significant niche in the publishing market. This blog hopes to give some tangibility to this practice, and its connections to related phenomena.