Binding media : hybrid print-digital literature from across the Americas / Élika Ortega.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ortega, Élika, author.

Series:

Text technologies.

Stanford Text Technologies Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literature and technology--America.

Literature and technology.

Books and reading--Technological innovations--America.

Books and reading.

Publishers and publishing--Technological innovations--America.

Publishers and publishing.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 328 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2025]

Summary:

Far from causing the "death of the book," the publishing industry's adoption of digital technologies has generated a multitude of new works that push the boundaries of literature and its presentation. In this fascinating new work, Élika Ortega proposes the notion of "binding media" — a practice where authors and publishers "fasten together" a codex and electronic or digital media to create literary works in the form of hybrid print-digital objects. Examining more than a hundred literary works from across the Americas, Ortega argues that binding media are not simply experimentations but a unique contemporary form of the book that effectively challenges conventional regional and linguistic boundaries. Furthermore, the book demonstrates that binding media have remained marginal in the publishing industry due to technological imperatives like planned obsolescence and commercial ones like replicability and standardization that run counter to these bespoke literary projects. Although many binding media and other hybrid publishing initiatives have perished, they've left behind a wealth of material; collecting and tracing the residues of these foreshortened projects, Ortega builds a fascinating history of hybrid publishing. Ultimately, this essential account of contemporary book history highlights the way binding media help illuminate processes of cultural hybridization that have been instigated by the expediency of globalized digital technologies and transnational dynamics.

Contents:

Binding media : negotiating (un)boundedness

From the digital revolution in publishing to a material history of hybrid books

Divergent temporalities in binding media

Media hybridity and cultural hybridity

Conclusion : from computer-generated books to NFT publishing.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781503641952

1503641953