Approaches to the history of written culture : a world inscribed / Martyn Lyons, Rita Marquilhas, editors.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Lyons, Martyn, editor, author.

Marquilhas, Rita, editor, author.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

New directions in book history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Writing--History.

Writing.

History.

Civilization--History.

Civilization.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

ix, 272 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cham, Switzerland : Palgrave MacMillan, [2017]

Summary:

This book investigates the history of writing as a cultural practice in a variety of contexts and periods. It analyses the rituals and practices determining intimate or 'ordinary' writing as well as bureaucratic and religious writing. From the inscribed images of 'pre-literate' societies, to the democratization of writing in the modern era, access to writing technology and its public and private uses are examined. In ten studies, presented by leading historians of scribal culture from seven countries, the book investigates the uses of writing in non-alphabetical as well as alphabetical script, in societies ranging from Native America and ancient Korea to modern Europe. The authors emphasise the material characteristics of writing, and in so doing they pose questions about the definition of writing itself. Drawing on expertise in various disciplines, they give an up-to-date account of the current state of knowledge in a field at the forefront of 'Book History'.

Contents:

A World Inscribed : Introduction / Martyn Lyons and Rita Marquilhas

The Babylonian Scribes and Their Libraries / Francis Joannès

Writings in the Korean Han'gŭl Script by and for the Women of Chosŏn Korea (1392-1910) / SeoKyung Han

Paper World : The Materiality of Loss in the Pre-Modern Age / John Gagné

Writings on the Streets : Ephemeral Texts and Public Space in the Early Modern Hispanic World / Antonio Castillo Gómez

Writing One's Life : The French School of the Anthropology of Writing / Nicolas Adell

Calendar, Chronicle and Songs of Sorrows : Generic Sources of Life Writing in Nineteenth-Century Finland / Anna Kuismin

Reading the 'Cheyenne Letter' : Towards a Typology of Inscription beyond the Alphabet / Germaine Warkentin

The Scribal Culture of Children : A Fragmentary History / Verónica Sierra Blas

Policing Writing in the City, 1852-1945 : The Invention of Scriptural Delinquency / Philippe Artières

QWERTYUIOP : How the Typewriter Influenced Writing Practices / Martyn Lyons

The Future of the History of Writing / Martyn Lyons.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9783319541358

3319541358

OCLC:

992534679