A Short Media History of English Literature

Ingo Berensmeyer

book: A Short Media History of English Literature

Open Access Published by De Gruyter 2022

A Short Media History of English Literature

Ingo Berensmeyer

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110784459

Overview
Contents

About this book

Open Access

This book explores the history of literature as a history of changing media and modes of communication, from manuscript to print, from the codex to the computer, and from paper to digital platforms. It argues that literature has evolved, and continues to evolve, in sync with material forms and formats that engage our senses in multiple ways. Because literary experiences are embedded in, and enabled by, media, the book focuses on literature as a changing combination of material and immaterial features.

The principal agents of this history are no longer genres, authors, and texts but configurations of media and technologies. In telling the story of these combinations from prehistory to the present, Ingo Berensmeyer distinguishes between three successive dominants of media usage that have shaped literary history: performance, representation, and connection. Using English literature as a test case for a long view of media history, this book combines an unusual bird’s eye view across periods with illuminating readings of key texts. It will prove an invaluable resource for teaching and for independent study in English or comparative literature and media studies.

Author / Editor information

Ingo Berensmeyer, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany.

Reviews

"This study, however, is quite unparalleled as a comprehensive, concise and also eminently readable account of English literature with a consistent focus on mediality and materiality. I have been considering whether to
adopt this book for my introduction to literary history. The welcome fact that its digital
emanation is available in open-access is inviting and its many qualities merit the plan
– but I fear that it may be too complex for the relatively clean literary slate of an
undergraduate class. This complexity is a direct result of Berensmeyer's focus on
materiality and form – and it is an increasingly important point to make in an age that
too frequently seems to reduce literature to a set of ideological positions." Eckart Voigts in: Anglistik 1/2024

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
1 Introduction Open Access Download PDF	1
I The Age of Performance (since c. 70,000 BCE)
2 Voice and Hand Open Access Download PDF	21
3 The Medieval and Early Modern Book Open Access Download PDF	43
4 Theatre and Drama: Liveness on the Stage Open Access Download PDF	63
II The Age of Representation (since c. 1500 CE)
5 Print Culture in the Long Eighteenth Century Open Access Download PDF	85
6 Paper Worlds: The Novel as Object and Form Open Access Download PDF	103
7 Voice and Breath in Romantic and Victorian Poetry Open Access Download PDF	127
III The Age of Connection (since c. 1850 CE)
8 Touch: Literature as Telecommunication Open Access Download PDF	147
9 Sound: Phonography, Telephony, Radio, Noise Open Access Download PDF	161
10 Vision: Text and Image Open Access Download PDF	179
11 Screen: Literature and the Moving Image Open Access Download PDF	197
12 Web: Literature in the Digital Age Open Access Download PDF	213
Acknowledgements Open Access Download PDF	227
Timeline Open Access Download PDF	229
List of Illustrations and Table Open Access Download PDF	233
References Open Access Download PDF	235
Index Open Access Download PDF	257

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Academics (Anglophone Literary and Cultural Studies), Libraries, Institutes
Pages
- Front matter: 9
- Main content: 304
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 5
- Coloured Illustrations: 13
- Tables: 1
Keywords: Media; literature; history

eBook

Published: August 1, 2022
ISBN: 9783110784459

Hardcover

Published: August 1, 2022
ISBN: 9783110784428

Paperback

Published: June 17, 2024
ISBN: 9783111534596