History 62 The History of Reading, Spring 2007

History of Reading
Spring 2007
Professor Burke

Books for purchase

Alberto Manguel, A History of Reading
Henri-Jean Martin, The History and Power of Writing
Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin, The Coming of the Book
Robert Darnton, The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France
Isabel Hofmeyr, The Portable Bunyan
Gabriel Zaid, So Many Books
Anne Fadiman, Ex Libris
Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran

This course is an examination of the closely interrelated histories of reading, writing and books, with a major focus on the so-called “Gutenberg revolution” and its impact on the publication, circulation and use of books.

Students will examine the roots and spread of reading, and wide variations in its forms and nature. The course is intended to explore why people across time and space have read, what the consequences and meaning of reading have been and might yet be, and even whether we should read. The course examines reading and publication as art, skill and technology.

Assignments for the course, in addition to regular attendance, engagement with the material, and participation in class, are two short papers, one longer research paper, and a weblog of overall reading experiences during one three-week period.

Tuesday January 23

Introduction

Orality and Literacy

Thursday January 25

Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy, short selection
Jack Goody, “The Construction of a Ritual Text: The Shift From Oral to Written Channels”, in The Power of the Written Tradition
Johannes Fabian, “Keep Listening”, in The Ethnography of Reading, ed. Jonathan Boyarin

Tuesday January 30

Henri-Jean Martin, “The Written and the Spoken Word” and “Speech and Letters”, in The History and Power of Writing

Reading Before Gutenberg

Thursday February 1

David Diringer, “The Book in Embryo”, The Book Before Printing
Alberto Manguel, A History of Reading, pp. 27-65

Tuesday February 6

David Diringer, “Papyrus Books”, The Book Before Printing
Henry Petroski, Chapter 2, The Book On the Bookshelf

Thursday February 8

Alberto Manguel, A History of Reading, pp. 67-123, pp. 177-211

The Gutenberg Revolution and the Dissemination of Reading

Tuesday February 13

Febvre and Martin, The Coming of the Book, Chapter 1-4

Thursday February 15

Febvre and Martin, The Coming of the Book, Chapter 5-8

Tuesday February 20

Henri-Jean Martin, The History and Power of Writing, Chap. 6-8

Thursday February 22

Adrian Johns, “Faust and the Pirates: The Cultural Construction of the Printing Revolution”, in The Nature of the Book

Tuesday February 27

Elizabeth Eisenstein, “The Book of Nature Transformed”, in The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe

FIRST PAPER DUE

Thursday March 1st

Carlo Ginzberg, The Cheese and the Worms, pp. 1-61
Adrian Johns, “The Physiology of Reading”, in The Nature of the Book

Begin your reading diary.

Tuesday March 6th

Robert Darnton, The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France

Thursday March 8th

No class

SPRING BREAK

Tuesday March 20th

William Warner, Licensing Entertainment: The Elevation of Novel Reading in Britain, selections

Thursday March 22nd

Jonathan Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes
Elizabeth Henry, Forgotten Readers: Recovering the Lost History of African-American Literary Societies

Tuesday March 27

Isabel Hofmeyr, The Portable Bunyan

Thursday March 29th

Isabel Hofmeyr, The Portable Bunyan
Discussion of reading diaries and reading memoir.

SECOND PAPER (Reading Memoir) DUE.

Reflections on Reading and Modernity

Tuesday April 3rd

Alberto Manguel, A History of Reading, pp. 213-306

Thursday April 5th

Henri-Jean Martin, The History and Power of Writing, Chapters 9 and 10

Tuesday April 10th

Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book

Thursday April 12th

Gabriel Zaid, So Many Books

Tuesday April 17th

Michael Dirda, An Open Book
Nicholas Basbanes, A Gentle Madness
Look around the site Library Thing. (The tab “Zeitgeist” makes for interesting exploration.)

Thursday April 19th

Anne Fadiman, Ex Libris

Tuesday April 24th

Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran

The Future of Reading

Thursday April 26th

The Institute for the Future of the Book.
Please explore this site very thoroughly, including reading back in the site weblog and some of the networked books such as Gamer Theory.

LibriVox

HASTAC

Tuesday May 1st
Presentations of final paper research.

Thursday May 3rd

James Shapiro, “The Sad Demise of the Personal Library” in Salewak, ed., A Passion For Books
Elizabeth Eisenstein, “The End of the Book?”, in Salewak, ed., A Passion For Books
James O’Donnell, “The Persistence of the Old and the Pragmatics of the New”, in Avatars of the Word
Jay David Bolter, Writing Space
Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture

FINAL PAPERS DUE by 5pm Monday MAY 14th. No extensions.