The History of the Book, Publishing, and Reading: Cultural Participation and the Sociology of Reading
1. The material presented here is intended to provide students of comparative media and culture studies with knowledge about the history of the book, the history of publishing, and the history of reading within the contexts of the sociology of reading and of cultural participation (see Steven Totosy, "Toward a Framework of Audience Studies," CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture (Library) (2001-): <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/library/audiencestudies.html>; see also Steven Totosy in Online Dictionary of the Social Sciences at <http://bitbucket.icaap.org/>) as a supplement for the seminar Publishing and New Media Publishing. For the field of cultural participation see also Steven Totosy, "Toward a Framework of Audience Studies," CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture (Library) (2001-): <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/library/audiencestudies.html> and entries "Audience Studies," "Comparative Cultural Studies," and "Systemic and Empirical Approach" by Steven Totosy in Online Dictionary of the Social Sciences at <http://bitbucket.icaap.org/>) The field of the study of cultural participation includes the theoretical background of audience studies in the context of ethnographical and anthropological research (see, for example, "Methods: What is Ethnography?" at <http://www.sas.upenn.edu/anthro/CPIA/METHODS/Ethnography.html>; Alexander Massey, "The Way We Do Things Around Here," The Culture of Ethnography at <http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/2961/waywedo.htm>). Thus, participants examine the different stages of ethnographic research, audience meanings, and interpretations, pleasure and fanship, the role of media in everyday life, and the use of ethnographic research methods in communication studies. Cultural participation is defined as the open systemic but self-referential activity where individuals and groups interact ("participate") in the complex communication and media situation of culture and cultural activities. All areas of activity connected to the act of reading are included in the definition of the sociology of reading: the process(es) of reading itself, readership (the who, where, why, what, when, and how of reading), the history of the book, the history of reading and readership, canon formation, pedagogical aspects of reading, institutional and systemic aspects of the readership, the publishing industry in its varied and multiple aspects, editing, etc. While the field of the sociology of reading and cultural participation is large, the material presented here is to be understood as an attempt to offer a selected but comprehensive perspective, intended to offer supplementary material for the seminar Publishing and New Media Publishing.
2. The History of the Book and Its Readership. Introduction to the development of printing from ancient times to the present, including the electronic revolution. The approach is comparative, with reference to various countries of Europe (Germany, England, and France) and the Far East. The importance of reading and readership of the book and literature as cultural participation. Suggested sources are Philipp G. Altbach, and Edith S. Hoshino, eds. International Book Publishing: An Encyclopedia (Garland, 1995); Robert Darnton, "What is the History of Books?," The Kiss of Lamourette (Norton, 1990. 107-35); Duxbury, Nancy. "The Book Reading Public in Canada," Journal of Scholarly Publishing 27.2 (1996): 75-81; Geoffrey Ashall Gleister, Encyclopedia of the Book. 2nd ed. (Oak Knoll P and The British Library, 1996); Isobel Grundy, "Books and the Woman: Postcript," ESC: English Studies in Canada 20.4 (December 1994): 373-76; Jonathan Rose, "Rereading the English Common Reader: A Preface to a History of Audiences," Journal of the History of Ideas 53 (1992): 47-70; Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, ed. Thematic Cluster History of the Book and the Study of Literature, Canadian Review of Comparative Literature / Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée 23.1 (March 1996): 207-58; Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek and Philip Kreisel, "Urban English-Speaking Canadian Literary Readership: The Results of a Pilot Study," Poetics: Journal of Empirical Research on Literature, the Media and the Arts 21.3 (1992): 211-38; Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, "Toward a Theory of Cumulative Canon Formation: Readership in English Canada," Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature 27.3 (1994): 107-19.
3. The History of Publishing (historical and contemporary). Aspects of publishing history (with particular attention to Canada) and desk-top and electronic publishing. Communications Canada, Desktop Publishing in Canada (Evans, 1988); Patricia Demers, ed. Scholarly Publishing in Canada (U of Ottawa P, 1988); Domenico Fiormonte, and Jonathan Usher, eds. New Media and the Humanities: Research and Applications (U of Oxford, Humanities Computing Unit, 2001); Linda Marie Fritschner, "Publishers' Readers, Publishers and Their Authors," Publishing History 7 (1980): 45-100; Rowland Lorimer, "Implications of the New Technologies of Information," Scholarly Publishing 16.3 (1986); John Sutherland, Victorian Novelists and Publishers (U of Chicago P, 1978); Steven Totosy de Zepetnek. "The New Knowledge Management: Online Research and Publishing in the Humanities." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture: A WWWeb Journal 3.1 (2001): <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb01-1/totosy01.html>. Further material includes Altick, Richard D. The English Common Reader: A Social History of the Mass Reading Public 1880-1900, Chicago 1957; Lewis A., Charles Kadushin, and Walter W. Powell, Books: the Culture and Commerce of Publishing, New York: Basic Books, 1982; Feltes, N.N. Modes of Production of Victorian Novels, U of Chicago P, 1986; Book Research Quarterly; Fine Print; Publishing History; Parker, George L. The Beginning of the Book Trade in Canada, U of Toronto P, 1985; James Nelson, Elkin Mathews: Publisher to Yeats, Joyce, Pound, U of Wisconsin P, 1989. Selected Trade Reference Books: American Book Trade Directory (Annual), Books in Print, Book Trade in Canada (Annual), Canadian Books in Print, International Literary Market Place (Annual), Annual Bibliography of the History of the Printed Book and Libraries (Annual), Literary Market Place (Annual), Paperbacks Books in Print (Annual), Publishers' Weekly Yearbook (Annual), Quill and Quire (Monthly).
4. Publishing Management. Areas: Global Management/Cash Flow; Industry Economics; Legal and Ethical Issues; Grants and Subsidies. Erlich, A., ed., Business of Book Publishing, Boulder: Westview Press, 1985; Lorimer, James, Book Reading in Canada, Toronto: ACP, 1983; Porter, J. and D.A. Potts, Canadian Libel Practice, Toronto: Butterworths, 1986; UNESCO, The ABC of Copyright, Paris, 1981; Keyes, A.A. and C. Brunet, Copyright in Canada, Ottawa: Consumer and Corporate Affairs, 1977.
5. Editing: Participants experiment with editing and formatting English-language texts submitted for publication in CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture: A WWWeb Journal <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/> (Purdue UP). MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 5th ed. (The Modern Language Association of America, 1999), Altick, R.D., Preface to Critical Reading, New York: HR and W, 1984; Butcher, J., Copy-Editing, Cambridge: CUP, 1983; Dellow, E.L., A First Course in Proof Reading, London: Northgate, 1979; O'Connor, M., Editing Scholarly Books and Journals, London: Pitman, 1978; Odell, Lee and Dixie Oswami, eds., Writing in Non-Academic Settings, Guilford, 1986.
6. Marketing. Areas: Structure of Markets; Niches; Advertising/Promotion;
Sales; Developing Marketing Strategies; Finance/Accounting.
Texts: Geiser, E. Business of Book Publishing, Boulder:
Westview, 1985; Bodian, N.G., Book Marketing Handbook, 2
vols. New York: Bowker, 1980-81; Smith, K., Marketing for Small Publishers,
London: Interaction Imprint, 1980; Vanier, D.J., Market Structure
and the Business of Book Publishing, New York: Pitman, 1973; Cain,
M.S., Book Marketing, Dustbooks, 1981.
7. Print Culture and the Professionalization of Literature. Alvin Kernan, Samuel Johnson and the Impact of Print, Princeton UP, 1989; Thomas F. Bonnell, "Bookselling and Canon-Making: The Trade Rivalry over the English Poets, 1776-1783," Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture 19 (1989): 53-69.
8. The Uses of Literacy. David Vincent, Literacy and Popular Culture: England 1750-1914, Cambridge UP, 1993.
9. Readers and Readership. Richard D. Altick, The English Common Reader, Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1957); David Vincent, Bread, Knowledge and Freedom, Amsterdam: Methuen, 1982; Jonathan Rose, "Rereading the English Common Reader: A Preface to a History of Audiences," Journal of the History of Ideas 53 (1992): 47-70; Jonathan Rose, "Marx, Jane Eyre, Tarzan: Miners' Libraries in South Wales 1923-52," Leipziger Jahrbuch zur Buchgeschichte 4 (1994): 187-207; Joseph McAleer, Popular Reading and Publishing in Britain 1914-1950, Oxford: Oxford UP, 1992; Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, "The Importance of Cultural Dialogue: A Case Study of Ethnic Minority and Cultural Participation in Canada," Mabel Lee, ed. Cultural Dialogue and Cultural Misreading. Sydney: Wild Peony, 1996. 367-76; Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, "Factors in a Theory of Cumulative Canon Formation: Contemporary Hungarian and English-Canadian Literature," Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, ed. Thematic Cluster, The Systemic and Empirical Approach to Literature: Theory and Application, Margarida Losa, ed. Literatura Comparada: Novos Paradigmas / Comparative Literature: New Paradigms. Porto: Aframento, 1996. 273-375; Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, "Readership Research, Cultural Studies, and Canadian Scholarship," Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, ed. Literary Reading and Readership Special Issue Reader: Essays in Reader-Oriented Theory, Criticism, and Pedagogy 35-36 (1996): 108-20.
10. The Sociology of Authorship and the Politics of Literature. T.W. Heyck, The Transformation of Intellectual Life in Victorian England (Lyceum, 1982); Richard D. Altick, "The Sociology of Authorship: The Social Origins, Education and Occupations of 1,100 British Writers, 1800-1935," Bulletin of the New York Public Library 66 (1962): 389-404; Patrick Leary, "Fraser's Magazine and the Literary Life, 1830-1847," Victorian Periodicals Review 27 (1994): 105-26; Gillian Thomas, A Position to Command Respect: Women and the Eleventh Britannica, London: Scarecrow, 1992; Nigel Cross, The Common Writer, Cambridge UP, 1985; John Rodden, The Politics of Literary Reputation: The Making and Claiming of "St. George" Orwell. Oxford UP, 1989; Paul Hyland and Neil Sammels, eds., Writing and Censorship in Britain, London: Routledge, 1992.