Technology and literature / edited by Adam Hammond.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Hammond, Adam, 1981- editor.

Series:

Cambridge critical concepts

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literature and technology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 421 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2024.

Summary:

Whereas previous books have explored how literature depicts or discusses scientific concepts, this book argues that literature is a technology. It shows how literature has been shaped by technological revolutions, and reveals the essential work that literature has done in helping to uncover the consequences of new technologies. Individual chapters focus on how specific literary technologies - the development of writing, the printing press, typewriters, the computer - changed the kinds of stories it was possible to tell, and how one could tell them. They also cover the way that literature has engaged with non-literary technologies - clocks, compasses, trains, telegraphs, cameras, bombs, computer networks - to help its readers to work through the new social configurations and new possibilities for human identity and imagination that they unveil. Human life is inescapably mediated through technology; literature demonstrates this, and thus helps its readers to engage consciously and actively with their technological worlds.

Contents:

Introduction / Adam Hammond

Orality and writing / I. J. MacRae

Manuscript / Bonnie Mak

The hand press, 1450-1800 / Paula McDowell

The mechanical press, 1800-1900 / Simon Reader

The typewriter / Darren Wershler

Literature in the electric age / Lise Jaillant

Digital text / Maxwell Foxman

Prostheses / Alice Hall

Clocks / Scott Lightsey

Compasses / Chris Barrett

Telescopes / Peter C. Herman

Steam engines / Nicola Kirkby

Wires / Aaron Worth

Cameras / Beci Carver

Phonographs / Jason Camlot

Waves and rays / Jennifer A. Janecheck

The bomb / Ann Larabee

Networks / David Ciccoricco

Distant reading / Natalie M. Houston

Visualization / Daniel Carter

Digital editions / Susan Brown.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 01 Dec 2023).

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9781108560740 (ebook)

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.