"Book studies" is a relatively new discipline. It developed from "analytical bibliography" which focused on the book as a physical object towards a highly interdisciplinary field of study which encompasses the production, distribution and reception of the "book" in combination with all possible external powers like economic, political, sociocultural, legal and religious influences. Based on bibliography, history as well as literary studies, book studies helps explain how books were produced, why they took the forms they did, their relations with other media, and what impact they had on the minds and actions of those who encountered them ("the book as a force for change," as Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin phrased it).
This lecture offers an introduction to this discipline and its most important developments. Selected case studies with a special focus on the history of the book in anglophone countries will shed light on the usefulness of this discipline.
First meeting: 15 October 2018
- Lehrende/r: Simon Rosenberg