Sophies on Sophas in Eighteenth Century England an Outline of the Novel-Reading Moral Panic/on Sekizinci Yuzyil Ingiltere'sinde Sofalardaki Sophie'ler: Ana Hatlariyla Roman-Okuma Ahlaki Panigi‪.‬

Abstract: The article explores the reaction to the popularization of novel reading in eighteenth-century England and tries to answer the question of whether the outraged response could be described as moral panic or even as an early example of media panic. After introducing the sociological concept of moral panic, established in the 1970s, and outlining the literary market of eighteenth-century England, the paper proceeds to identify in the anxieties, arising from the passion for novels, and in the argumentation behind them as advocated by the moral heralds, the elements that constitute the typical phenomenon of moral panic; and seeks to explain the exaggerated feeling of threat by presenting the novelreading moral panic as a symptom of broader social concerns. Throughout maintaining a dialogue between eighteenth century and the present, the essay concludes by drawing further analogies with contemporary reactions to television viewing, thus linking the worried response to the spread of novels with another related notion, the media panic. Keywords: moral panic, novels, female readers, eighteenth-century England, media panic