Chapter 2. Literary History, Book History, and Media Studies

2016 ◽  
pp. 23-39
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Book History ◽  
History Book

Book History

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gail Low
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Social History ◽  
Book History ◽  
The Social ◽  
Literary Cultures ◽  
The Impact ◽  
History Book

This chapter discusses Book History. Drawing on the disciplinary fields of ‘analytical bibliography’ and influenced by work in Annales social history, Book History takes as its subject the cultural history and the sociology of print, and also the impact of print on the ‘thought and behaviour of mankind’ from the Gutenberg press to the present day. As books make the complicated journey from the idea to print in all its variant forms, the connections between publishing, cultural, educational, and literary institutions—and the individuals involved in these—are crucial to understanding how they emerge in print, how they are used, how they circulate, and what they mean. The chapter thus addresses the following areas of importance to the social and material histories of the Anglophone novel to 1950: the ‘glocalized’ geographies of print and trade; newspapers and local literary cultures; colonial editions; libraries, readers and writers; trade and copyright legislation.

Rethinking the Print Object: Goethe and the Book of Everything

PMLA ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 121 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Piper
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Print Media ◽  
Book History ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Technological Capabilities ◽  
Final Version ◽  
Publishing Strategy ◽  
Opening Up

This essay combines a consideration of the two-decades-long publishing strategy of Goethe's last major prose work, Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre (1808–29), with a reading of specific formal features unique to the final version of the novel. In doing so, it argues that Goethe's use of print and narrative work in concert to form what we might call a particular media imaginary–to reimagine the printed book not according to emerging nineteenth-century criteria of sovereignty, nationality, and permanence but instead according to values more in keeping with the technological capabilities of print media, such as transformation, diffusion, and connectivity. In his vigorous engagement with the material manifestations of his work as a key site of literary work, Goethe offers us an ideal place to explore the productive intersections that the disciplines of book history and literary history are opening up today. (AP)

Comics Studies as Interdiscipline

2019 ◽  
pp. 655-670
Author(s):  
Dale Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Reflective Practice ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Book History ◽  
Comic Books ◽  
Book Industry ◽  
Comic Book ◽  
Comics Studies ◽  
Commercial Publishing ◽  
Ways Of Thinking

This chapter is a call for comics studies to become a fully interdisciplinary endeavor—an interdiscipline rather than an anti-discipline—and for that move toward interdisciplinarity to occur through reflective practice. The chapter proposes that one way this move might be accomplished is by incorporating methodologies and ways of thinking from the fields of book history and media studies into comics studies. Both book history and media studies demand that scholars be mindful of the commercial publishing contexts of comics, while additionally providing examples of hybrid methodologies that work toward interdisciplinarity in their own right. These questions of interdisciplinarity and methodology are approached through discussions of the 1976 Project, which involves examining a year of traditional output of the American comic book industry. The chapter details how book history and media studies might contribute to comics studies and addresses questions raised by and methodologies needed to examine seven comic books from August 1976.

Mental Representation

2020 ◽  
pp. 245-256
Author(s):  
Andrew Elfenbein
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Mental Representation ◽  
Text Comprehension ◽  
Book History ◽  
Comprehension Skills ◽  
Physical Medium ◽  
Comprehension Process ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Critical Aspects

Book history, media studies, and digital humanities have foregrounded the physical medium of texts and have shown special interest in the rise of digital media. This essay acknowledges the value of these disciplines but also points to their limitations as sites for analyzing reading. Scholars should not draw conclusions about reception based on a work’s medium of presentation. The comprehension process, as described in cognitive psychology, provides a powerful alternative for understanding reading; psychologists have argued for the existence of general comprehension skills that operate across media. Whatever the origin of a text, comprehension occurs in the same medium, the mind of the reader. The study of reading in the humanities needs to separate itself from the disciplines with which it is usually associated (book history and media studies) because these mask critical aspects of the reading process.

scholarly journals "Coming Full Circle": Reviving Private Press Printing at the University of Otago

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Paula Jane Whitelock
Keyword(s):  
Literary History ◽  
Art History ◽  
Book History ◽  
Specific Work ◽  
Historical Case Study ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Limited Edition ◽  
The University

<p>The Printer in Residence (PiR) Programme at the University of Otago has been running since 2003, and in that time, nine private press publications have been produced. Each year the programme commissions a skilled handcraft printer to produce a specific work (usually related to the University of Otago's art and literary history) in collaboration with local artists and print makers. Although there is valuable research being conducted in regards to New Zealand's print culture, this was aspect of New Zealand's private press history yet to be investigated. This study utilised an historical case study approach with an objective to document the recent history and development of the Printer in Residence(PiR) Programme through an investigation of its archives; interviews with eight of the programme's participants, and written accounts by two others. The study aimed to gain a holistic perspective of the PiR Programme by interviewing those involved in its administration and general operations, past Printers in Residence, and artists and print makers. Case studies of the 2005, 2006 and 2007 PiR Programmes highlight the collaborative process of producing a limited edition hand printed book, and unique characteristics of each PiR programme. The major themes identified from the data gathered were: the strong collaborative aspect of the PiR Programme; the importance placed on promoting the programme as a teaching opportunity to the English, Art History and Design departments; the hand crafted qualities of the books produced in comparison to commercial publishing, and the perceived value of the PiR programme for those involved in this study. This study identifies the PiR Programme as a small but important aspect of New Zealand's book history which is worthy of further research.</p>

Unwritten Poetry

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott A. Trudell
Keyword(s):  
William Shakespeare ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Book History ◽  
Media History ◽  
Musical Performance ◽  
Literary Field ◽  
Renaissance Poetry ◽  
The Media ◽  
Synthetic Media ◽  
The Impact

Vocal music was at the heart of English Renaissance poetry and drama. Virtuosic actor-singers redefined the theatrical culture of William Shakespeare and his peers. Composers including William Byrd and Henry Lawes shaped the transmission of Renaissance lyric verse. Poets from Philip Sidney to John Milton were fascinated by the disorienting influx of musical performance into their works. Musical performance was a driving force behind the period’s theatrical and poetic movements, yet its importance to literary history has long been ignored or effaced. Unwritten Poetry reveals the impact of vocalists and composers upon the poetic culture of early modern England by studying the media through which—and by whom—its songs were made. In a literary field that was never confined to writing, media were not limited to material texts. Scott Trudell argues that the media of Renaissance poetry can be conceived as any node of transmission from singer’s larynx to actor’s body. Through his study of song, Trudell outlines a new approach to the Renaissance poetry and drama that is grounded not simply in performance history or book history but in a more synthetic media history.

scholarly journals Secret agents: Algorithmic culture, Goodreads and datafication of the contemporary book world

2019 ◽  
pp. 136754941988602
Author(s):  
Simone Murray
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Book History ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Cultural Goods ◽  
Cultural Effects ◽  
Corporate History ◽  
Selection Processes ◽  
User Data ◽  
Book World ◽  
Selection Of

Goodreads, the Anglophone world’s dominant book-centric social networking platform, is a compelling example of algorithmic selection of cultural goods. By exploring in detail Goodreads’s corporate history, financing arrangements and commodification of user data, the article poses questions about the designed opacity of algorithmic selection processes, their self-perpetuating cultural effects, and potential privileging of the commercial interests of corporate owner Amazon. More broadly, the article ponders the optimal theoretical and methodological tools for examining the 21st-century book world. It ponders the shortcomings of standard book history approaches and canvasses what cultural and media studies frameworks may add. Given the increasing interpenetration of bookish dispositions and digital technologies, the article argues it is time for these disciplines themselves to merge.

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