Department of English

This seminar will examine the impact and limits of the invention of the printing press on Western culture. It will propose a reappraisal of the relations between scribal culture and print culture and an aalysis of the importance of printing for new definitions of the book, publishing, textual genres and authorship. It will focus on specific case and textual studies and use some materials owned by the collections of the Van Pelt Library. It will deal mainly with English, Spanish and French examples. The seminar is taught in English but the knowledge of another language (Spanish, French, or Italian) could be useful.