Book, Text, Medium: Cross-Sectional Reading for a Digital Age

258 Pages·2021·4.069 MB·English

by  Garrett Stewart

BOOK, TEXT, MEDIUM
Book,Text,Medium:Cross-SectionalReadingforaDigitalAgeutilizes
codex history, close reading, and language philosophy to assess the
transformative arc between medieval books and today’s e-books. It
examineswhathappenstothereadingexperienceinthetwenty-first
centurywhentheoriginalconceptofabookisstillheldinthemindof
a reader, if no longer in the reader’s hand. Leading critic Garrett
Stewartexplorestheplayofmediationmoregenerally,astheconcept
ofbookmovesfromamanufacturedobjecttosimplythelanguageit
putsintocirculation.Framedbydigitalpoetics,phonorobotics,and
the rising popularity of audiobooks, this study sheds new light on
both the history of reading and the negation of legible print in
conceptualbookart.
garrettstewartisJamesO.FreedmanProfessorofLettersatthe
UniversityofIowa.Hehaswrittenfivebookseachonliteraryanalysis,
arthistory,andfilmtheory,mostrecentlyTheOne,Other,andOnly
Dickens (2018), Transmedium (2018), and Cinemachines (2020).
Stewart was elected in 2010 to the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences.
cambridge studies in twenty-first-century
literature and culture
Editor
PeterBoxall,UniversityofSussex
Astheculturalenvironmentofthetwenty-firstcenturycomesintoclearerfocus,
Cambridge Studies in Twenty-First-Century Literature and Culture presents a
seriesofmonographsthatundertakesthemostpenetratingandrigorousanalysisof
contemporary culture and thought.The series is driven by the perception that
critical thinking today is in a state of transition. The global forces that produce
cultural forms are entering into powerful new alignments, which demand new
analytical vocabularies in the wake of later twentieth-century theory. The series
willdemonstrate thattheoryisnot simplyafailed revolutionarygesturethatwe
need to move beyond, but rather brings us to the threshold of a new episteme,
whichwillrequirenewtheoreticalenergytonavigate.Inthisspirit,theserieswill
host work that explores the most important emerging critical contours of the
twenty-firstcentury,marryinginventiveandimaginativecriticismwiththeoretical
and philosophical rigor. The aim of the series will be to produce an enduring
accountofthetwenty-first-centuryintellectuallandscapethatwillnotonlystand
asarecordofthecriticalnatureofourtime,butthatwillalsoforgenewcritical
languagesandvocabularieswithwhichtonavigateanunfoldingage.Inofferinga
historicallyrichandphilosophicallynuancedaccountofcontemporaryliterature
and culture, the series will stand as an enduring body of work that helps us to
understandtheculturalmomentinwhichwelive.
InThisSeries
JoelEvans
Conceptualising the Global in the Wake of the Postmodern: Literature, Culture,
Theory
AdelineJohns-Putra
ClimateChangeandtheContemporaryNovel
CarolineEdwards
UtopiaandtheContemporaryBritishNovel
PaulCrosthwaite
TheMarketLogicsofContemporaryFiction
JenniferCooke
ContemporaryFeministLife-Writing:TheNewAudacity
BOOK, TEXT, MEDIUM
Cross-Sectional Reading for a Digital Age
GARRETT STEWART
UniversityofIowa
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www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108834599
doi:10.1017/9781108876216
©GarrettStewart2020
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2020
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
names:Stewart,Garrett,author.
title:Book,text,medium:crosssectionalreadingforadigitalage/GarrettStewart,University
ofIowa.
description:Cambridge,UK;NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,2020.|Series:
Cambridgestudiesintwenty-first-centuryliteratureandculture|Includesbibliographical
referencesandindex.
identifiers:lccn2020028005(print)|lccn2020028006(ebook)|isbn9781108834599
(hardback)|isbn9781108876216(ebook)
subjects:lcsh:Booksandreading–Philosophy.|Booksandreading–History–21stcentury.
classification:lccz1003.s842020(print)|lccz1003(ebook)|ddc028/.9–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2020028005
LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2020028006
isbn978-1-108-83459-9Hardback
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URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication
anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain,
accurateorappropriate.
To and for
the challenging students who keep me
productively off balance in moving
to and fro
between media

Contents
ListofFigures pageviii
Prospectus ix
Intro\Retro 1
part i. the hold of the codex 27
1 Bibliographics 29
2 Platformatics 57
part ii. the grip of inscription 91
3 ReadingIn 93
4 ReadingOut 118
part iii. the give of medium 139
5 PhrasingtheSayable 141
6 BetweenLanguageandText 173
PartingWords 215
Notes 225
Index 241
vii
Figures
1.1 BuzzSpector,OfftheShelf(November2012) page34
1.2 JohnCayley,TheReadingRoom(2011) 40
1.3 MarcoPalmezzano,St.JeromeinanExtensiveLandscape(1503) 47
1.4 MarcoPalmezzano,St.JeromeinanExtensiveLandscape(1503), 48
detail
1.5 Jacques-EmileBlanche,PortraitofArthurActonandHarold 49
ActonSeatedinaRoomatVillaLaPietra(1913)
1.6 AntonellodaMessina,St.JeromeinHisStudy(c.1475) 51
1.7 AmaranthBorsukandBradBouse,BetweenPageandScreen 54
(2013)
2.1 JohnRoach,Pageturner(1997) 60
2.2 NickYulman,IndexOrgan(2014) 71
2.3 AlexanderRosenberg,Hyperpyrexic(2014–17) 73
2.4 MikaTajima,NegativeEntropy(2018) 78
2.5 MikaTajima,NegativeEntropy(Paris:ThreeStarBooks, 79
2015),Vol.5,detail
viii