Text Technologies: A History

by Elaine Treharne, Claude Willan

Overview

The field of text technologies is a capacious analytical framework that focuses on all textual records throughout human history, from the earliest periods of traceable communication—perhaps as early as 60,000 BCE—to the present day. At its core, it examines the material history of communication: what constitutes a text, the purposes for which it is intended, how it functions, and the social ends that it serves.

This coursebook can be used to support any pedagogical or research activities in text technologies, the history of the book, the history of information, and textually based work in the digital humanities. Through careful explanations of the field, examinations of terminology and themes, and illustrated case studies of diverse texts—from the Cyrus cylinder to the Eagles' "Hotel California"—Elaine Treharne and Claude Willan offer a clear yet nuanced overview of how humans convey meaning. Text Technologies will enable students and teachers to generate multiple lines of inquiry into how communication—its production, form and materiality, and reception—is crucial to any interpretation of culture, history, and society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781503600485
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	11/26/2019
Series:	Stanford Text Technologies
Pages:	222
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Elaine Treharne is Roberta Bowman Denning Professor of Humanities and Professor of English (and, by courtesy, of German Studies) at Stanford University, as well as Director of Stanford's Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis. Claude Willan is Director of the Digital Research Commons at the University of Houston Libraries.

Table of Contents

Illustrations v

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xi

Part I Conceptual Framework 1

Introduction to Text 1

Finding and Defining Text

Describing Text

What Is the Study of Text Technologies? 6

How to Use This Book 7

Overview of This Book 8

Principal Concepts 9

Intentionality

Materiality

Functionality

Cultural Value/Aura

Secondary Concepts 16

Sedimentation

Authority

Production, Transmission, Consumption

Censorship

Copyright

Consortia

Cryptography

Part II Historical Framework 33

Timelines 34

Historical Technologies 38

Writing on Stone 38

Chauvet Cave Paintings

Babylonian Clay Tablets

The Cyrus Cylinder

The Florida Ostraka

Behistun Monument

The Rosetta Stone

Roman Inscription

Japanese Tsunami Stones

Breamore Church

Signs

Graffiti

Writing On Cellulose 60

Papyrus

Paper

Wax Tablets

Seals

Writing on Animal Skin 68

Parchment and Vellum

The Hereford Mappa Mundi

The Scroll

The Codex

Tattoos

Form and Function 78

Manuscript Culture 78

A Bible

A Book of Hours

An Antiphonal

Voynich Manuscript

Jacobite Manuscript Poetry

Bookbinding

Woodcuts and Block Printing 93

The Gutenberg Bible

William Carton and Early Modern Printing

Protestant Bibles

Shakespeare's Works

Lithography 103

Minard's Carte Figurative

Chromolithography

Reading for Everyone 106

Newspapers

Magazines

The Spectator

Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language

Denis Diderot and Jean Le Rond d'Alembert's Encyclopédie

Charles Dickens's Writing

Readers and Reading 116

The Marsh Library

Duke Humfrey's Library

The British Library

Sound and Image 120

The Zoetrope

Film

Television

Radio

Digital Technologies 126

BBSs and the Well

HTML, CSS, and RSS

Web 2.0

Touchscreen Tablets

Proprietary Content Streams

Research Questions 134

New Text Technologies 134

Writing Systems 134

Form 135

Substrates 135

Sample Tools and Materials 136

Trends, Themes, and Issues 137

Part III Case Studies 139

The One-Dollar Bill 140

The Rosetta Disk 144

The Cyrus Cylinder 148

"Hotel California" 152

Kelmscott Chaucer 154

Part IV Transformations 159

Manuscript to Print 159

Compact Disc to MP3 165

Scroll to Codex 168

Notes 173

Bibliography 179

Index 197

Illustrations

Figure 1 The Chauvet Caves. Thirty Thousand BCE 39

Figure 2 Babylonian Cuneiform tablet. 2056 BCE 40

Figure 3 Cyrus Cylinder. Sixth Century BCE 42

Figure 4 Ostrakon-Fragment of a letter. Second century CE 45

Figure 5 Ostrakon-Fragment of a letter. Second century CE 45

Figure 6 Behistun monument. Sixth century BCE 46-47

Figures 7-9 Rosetta Stone. Second Century BCE 48

Figure 10 Arch of Constantine, Rome. Fourth century CE 50

Figure 11 Duomo, Pisa. Twelfth Century CE 50

Figure 12 Vergilius Augusteus Manuscript. Fifth century CE 50

Figure 13 Japanese tsunami stone, Aneyoshi. Twentieth century 52

Figure 14 Breamore Church doorway. Eleventh century CE 54

Figure 15 Road Sign. Twentieth century 56

Figure 16 Shop sign, Pisa. Twenty-first century 56

Figure 17 Graffiti, New York. Twentieth century 58

Figure 18 Graffiti on church monument. Sixteenth century CE 58

Figure 19 Graffiti. Twentieth century 58

Figure 20 Early papyrus. Second century BCE 61

Figure 21 Early paper. Fifteenth century CE 62

Figure 22 Watermark on early handmade paper. Fifteenth century CE 62

Figure 23 Medieval styli 64

Figure 24 Wax tablets with stylus. Twentieth-century replica 64

Editorial Reviews

"A lucid and stimulating introduction to the history of text technologies, ranging from cave paintings, clay tablets, and Japanese tsunami memorials to films, mp3s, and iPads. Packed with thought-provoking examples and discussion, this book will engage a wide range of students, encouraging them to explore how the complex interplay between creativity, communication, and technology shapes global cultures."

Universityof Glasgow - Andrew Prescott

"Elaine Treharne and Claude Willan provide the big picture of the history of text—all the ways humans have recorded information from cave paintings to paper money and radar. Their work offers a rich conceptual framework and broad historical coverage to orient students and teachers amidst this fascinating landscape. Whether you are interested in theories that guide textual study, case studies about the Cyrus Cylinder or the Zoetrope, or questions of how technologies of inscription evolve, this clear and lucid book has ample material for a wide variety of curious readers."—Andrew Piper, McGill University

"If there is one book to assign Humanities and Digital Humanities students that provides a wide range of knowledge about text technologies, it is this one. It introduces principal concepts along with ample historical examples, five diverse case studies, and an explanation about the way in which particular text technologies have shifted over time."—Dene Grigar, Washington State UniversityVancouver

"A lucid and stimulating introduction to the history of text technologies, ranging from cave paintings, clay tablets, and Japanese tsunami memorials to films, mp3s, and iPads. Packed with thought-provoking examples and discussion, this book will engage a wide range of students, encouraging them to explore how the complex interplay between creativity, communication, and technology shapes global cultures."—Andrew Prescott, University of Glasgow

From the Publisher

"If there is one book to assign Humanities and Digital Humanities students that provides a wide range of knowledge about text technologies, it is this one. It introduces principal concepts along with ample historical examples, five diverse case studies, and an explanation about the way in which particular text technologies have shifted over time."

Washington State UniversityVancouver - Dene Grigar

"Elaine Treharne and Claude Willan provide the big picture of the history of text—all the ways humans have recorded information from cave paintings to paper money and radar. Their work offers a rich conceptual framework and broad historical coverage to orient students and teachers amidst this fascinating landscape. Whether you are interested in theories that guide textual study, case studies about the Cyrus Cylinder or the Zoetrope, or questions of how technologies of inscription evolve, this clear and lucid book has ample material for a wide variety of curious readers."

McGill University - Andrew Piper