Teaching the History of Books and Printing--SYLLABUS
Instructors: Michael Ryan, Daniel Traister
Monday, July 14
I. Introductions
B. What are we doing here?
C. What do we want from the course and why?
D. What do we already do along the lines of teaching the history of books and printing? If teaching such a course is now a prospect rather than a reality, what are we planning to do with it?
II. The subject
B. What do we mean by the "history of the book"?
1. "the"?
2. "history"? and (last but not least)
3. "book"?
"the book"? What do we mean by "the book"? I.e., is there a generally accepted vocabulary (or taxonomy) of the field? IS there a field?
III. Mapping the territory
For purely heuristic and argumentative purposes, we divide our map into two parts:
1-b. Tanselle vs. McKenzie and his revisions
2. The history of "printing"
2-b. The history of the artifact
3. Publishing history
4. The image: illustrated books, prints, maps; iconology
5. Bindings and other aspects of "the book arts"
6. The birth of the "paratext"
B. The "sociocultural" book
1. Havelock, McLuhan, Ong (the spoken, the written, the seen: from the "true Homer" to McLuhan and beyond)
2. The Annales school (the "book and society")
2-b. Elizabeth L. Eisenstein
3. The author: birth and death of same
4. The reader: practices of appropriation; reception theory; readers as the manipulated and the manipulators
5. Sites of reading: libraries and collections
6. The electronic word and its impact on the "field"
III, continued--perhaps with some discussion with G. THOMAS TANSELLE, the Monday night lecturer
IV. Considering the contexts of courses:
B. Graduate courses
C. Institutional setting (I):
2. library school
3. within library contexts
4 continuing education
D. Institutional setting (II):
E. Collaborative teaching.
V. Resources available:
2. BAP library
3. Rotunda exhibit
4. General emphasis on the variety of artifactual evidence
5. Films, tapes, and similar resources of the BAP
B. Reading the artifact (considering the total range of artifactual evidence and formats)
C. Site visits: libraries, museums, print shops, binderies, paper mills, etc.
D. The internet, its offerings and potential (with participation of DAVID SEAMAN, of the UVa staff, if this can be scheduled
VI. Discussion with PETER STALLYBRASS, the Wednesday night lecturer, about how and why current academics have come to an interest in this topic, and the sorts of projects their work involves
VII. Creating courses (I): what ingredients? and how they work together (or don't)
B. Student presentations; student teams
C. Assignments (oral and written)
D. In-class exercises
VIII. Creating courses (II): reviewing syllabi (our own, from SHARP, the web, etc.).
IX. Putting it all together: creating courses (III)
X. The future of THIS course
B. where? at RBS? is one week sufficient?
C. possibility of NEH summer seminars?
Click here for the Selected Course Readings for this class.
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Last update: 9 Jily 1997