Courses
English 803.3: Topics in Literary
and Cultural Studies 2003: “The History of the Book from Codex to Electronic Communication
I”
Professor Peter Stoicheff
Mondays 1:30 – 3:30
This course examines the early stages in the development of the book. The area
is vast, and consequently we will limit our study to two particularly significant
subjects within it: (1) the invention of the codex and (2) the production of
medieval codices that pre-date the invention of the printing press.
The “history of the book” is a recent, emerging and rapidly evolving
scene of inquiry. It contains, as yet, few universally recognized texts,
procedures or authorities. No text claiming comprehensive coverage exists.
No discipline such as English literature can begin to offer adequate
perspective on its own. Instead, the history of the book lies scattered
among a wide variety of texts – some in the form of book-length
studies, others in the form of articles – and a wide variety of
disciplines such as classical and medieval history, Biblical scholarship,
archaeology, anthropology, sociology, media studies, literacy studies,
cultural studies, literary theory, the history of science and technology
and so on.
In order to begin exploring the invention of the codex, precursor to
what we now think of as “the book”, we will read some assessments
of the kinds of texts and reading practices that pre-dated its appearance
in the early centuries of the first millennium. We will then study the
crucial shift from papyrus scrolls to the codex. The invention of the
codex was made possible by a combination of Roman technological advances
in text production, increase in literacy rates, emergence of a proto-democratic
political system, evolution of the alphabet, requirements of military
communication, development of silent reading and so on. After that,
the second subject of the course: medieval monastic scribal texts and
text production. We’ll investigate what materials were used in
creating them, what the experience of reading them might have meant
and, finally, what they actually look like -- the U of S library houses
single-page monastic manuscripts in Special Collections.
Each student will give a seminar presentation on one or more scheduled readings
in the first half of the course and again in the second half (for a total of
two seminar presentations). Two essays of eight to ten pages, due on October
27th and December 8th will also be required. Topics for each will be devised
by the student; the first essay will be on something related to the substance
of the course to that point (essentially the codex and/or developments pre-dating
it), and the second essay will be on something related to the substance of the
second half of the course (essentially the production or “reading”
of monastic medieval manuscripts). There will also be a final exam in December.
The seminars will not be marked (although I can give you feedback on yours if
you would like me to). Each essay will be worth 35% of the final mark; the exam
will be worth 20% of the final mark; participation and attendance will comprise
the remaining 10%.
Texts to Purchase:
Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (Routledge)
Alberto Manguel, A History of Reading (Vintage)
Schedule:
Sept. 8: Introduction to the Course
Sept. 15. Orality and Writing
Walter Ong, Chapters 1-4.
Sept. 22. Literacy and the Alphabet: I
Robert Logan, The Alphabet Effect, Chapters 1-8 (Reserve)
Sept. 29. Literacy and the Alphabet: II
Eric Havelock, Origins of Western Literacy (Reserve)
Alberto Manguel, "Learning to Read"Oct. 6 Papyrus Scrolls
Bridget Leach and John Tait, “Papyrus”
in Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, Nicholson and Shaw, eds.
(Reserve)
Henry Petroski, "From Scrolls to Codices"
in The Book on the Bookshelf (handout)
Alberto Manguel, "The Shape of the Book"
Oct. 20. The Invention of the Codex
Roberts and Skeat, The Birth of the Codex (Reserve)
Guglielmo Cavallo, “Between Volumen and Codex”
in A History of Reading in the West, Cavallo and Chartier, eds. (Reserve)
Oct. 27. Silent Reading
Bernard Knox, "Silent Reading in Antiquity"
in Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies 9 (1968): 421-35 (handout)
Paul Saenger, “Reading, Copying and Interpreting a Text in the
Early Middle Ages”
in A History of Reading in the West, Cavallo and Chartier, eds. (Reserve)
Alberto Manguel, "The Silent Readers"
Nov. 3. Medieval Manuscript Production
Medieval Manuscript Manual, "II: Materials and Techniques of Manuscript
Production”
Richard W. Clement, "Medieval and Renaissance Book Production: Manuscript
Books"
Nov. 10. Illuminated Manuscripts
Medieval Manuscript Manual, "V: Manuscript Illumination"
<http://www.ceu.hu/medstud/manual/MMM/home.html>
Nov. 17. The Experience of Reading in the Middle Ages
Ivan Illich, “Monastic Reading”
in In the Vineyard of the Text (Reserve)
David R. Olson, “A History of Reading: From the Spirit of the
Text …”
in The World on Paper (Reserve)
Alberto Manguel, “Metaphors of Reading”
Websites on Lectio Divina:
<http://www.valyermo.com/ld-art.html>
<http://users.skynet.be/scourmont/Armand/wri/lectio-eng.htm>
Nov. 24. Manuscript Viewing in Special Collections
Dec. 1: Conclusion to the Course
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