LIBR 548F: History of the Book – Course Syllabus (1 credit)
Program: Master
of Library and Information Studies
Year: 2005-2006,
Winter session, Term 1
Course Schedule:
November 4, 2005, 5:00-9:00;
November 5, 2005, 9:00- 12:00; 1:00-6:00
Instructor:
Anne Russell
Office location:
KL 216
E-mail address: arussell@wlu.ca
Course Goals : The course will offer an overview of the history of the book – as a material object, and as an agent of intellectual and social change. We will consider in some detail the early modern transition from “manuscript culture” to “print culture.” We will also analyze contemporary relations between print media and digital media. Our main focus in class will be on book history in Europe, Britain, and North America. Students may write research essays which focus on book history in other areas.
Course Objectives:
- To survey the development of books as material objects
- To gain a basic knowledge of the technologies by which books have been produced over time
- To consider the significance of the development of printing as an agent of social and intellectual change
- To consider how the development of printing as an organized trade affected authors and readers
- To analyze how book technologies and book trade practices affect scholarly editing
- To consider the current and future implications of the shift from printing to electronic and web publication
Course Topics :
- Books as material objects – tablets, scrolls, codices; manuscript books, printed books, pamphlets, broadsides; binding, decoration; electronic books
- Technological developments in the production of books – clay, papyrus, vellum, paper; stylus, ink, brush, pen; ideograms, alphabets; block printing, movable type, development of typefaces; hand printing, steam printing, offset printing, digitization
- Writing, printing, and culture – orality; writing; manuscript and print cultures; the politics of printing (e.g. the Bible, political texts, scientific knowledge, literature, music, engraving); literacy and reading practices; class and gender; censorship, underground printing, samizdat
- Scriptoria and printing houses in their social, intellectual, political, and economic contexts; copyright; the “author;” the editor
- Principles of scholarly editing of early texts – theories of copy-text; collation, emendation, annotation, modernization; post-modern editorial theory
- Implications of the transfer of printed information to commercial and non-commercial databases and e-books; developments in copyright law
Format of the Course : Lectures, films, and demonstrations; class discussion; group work
Required and Recommended Reading :
Required: Custom Course package from UBC Bookstore:
- from Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy: Technologizing the Word
- from Albertine Gaur, Literacy and the Politics of Writing
- from S.H. Steinberg, Five Hundred Years of Printing
- from Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change
- from Frederick G. Kilgour, The Evolution of the Book
N. B. Please read the material in the course package before the first class.
Recommended: A bibliography of further reading will be distributed at the first class.
Course Assignments :
- In-class writing assignment November 4 20%
- 2500-word research essay November 25 80%
Attendance : The calendar states: “Regular attendance is expected of student in all their classes (including lectures, laboratories, tutorials, seminars, etc.). Students who neglect their academic work and assignments may be excluded from the final examination. Students who are unavoidably absent because of illness or disability should report to their instructors on return to classes.”
Students are expected to attend all sessions on both days of this compressed weekend course.
Evaluation : In the first class, you will write a short essay responding to the readings in the custom course package. The assignment will ask you to demonstrate that you are thinking critically about the readings. You are expected to take an active part in class discussion and group work. You will write a research essay on a topic of your choice. General suggestions for essay topics will be distributed at the first class.
All assignments will be awarded grades using the evaluative criteria given on the SLAIS web site.
Written and Spoken English Requirement : Written and spoken work may receive a lower mark if it is, in the opinion of the instructor, deficient in English.
