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  • The Book As An Object: Reading Books As Cultural Texts

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    Books can tell us about societies and cultures. They are defined by their users rather than having a single fixed definition. Books have evolved from clay tablets and scrolls to handwritten codices to printed works. People use books in many ways such as reading, selling, sharing, and collecting. Books also influence people as symbols that can represent ideas like academia, literacy, and freedom of expression. Scholars have studied books through frameworks such as object biographies to understand their cultural meaning and how that meaning has changed over time.

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    Books can tell us about societies and cultures. They are defined by their users rather than having a single fixed definition. Books have evolved from clay tablets and scrolls to handwritten codices to printed works. People use books in many ways such as reading, selling, sharing, and collecting. Books also influence people as symbols that can represent ideas like academia, literacy, and freedom of expression. Scholars have studied books through frameworks such as object biographies to understand their cultural meaning and how that meaning has changed over time.

    Copyright:

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    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    53 views8 pages

    The Book As An Object: Reading Books As Cultural Texts

    Uploaded by

    CampbellMartin
    Books can tell us about societies and cultures. They are defined by their users rather than having a single fixed definition. Books have evolved from clay tablets and scrolls to handwritten codices to printed works. People use books in many ways such as reading, selling, sharing, and collecting. Books also influence people as symbols that can represent ideas like academia, literacy, and freedom of expression. Scholars have studied books through frameworks such as object biographies to understand their cultural meaning and how that meaning has changed over time.

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    The Book as an Object

    reading books as cultural texts

    The importance of Objects


    Objects are universal, tangible and powerful. ...apparently inanimate things within the environment act on people, and are acted upon by people, for the purposes of carrying out social functions, regulating social relations and giving symbolic meaning to human activity. (Woodward 2007, 3) Objects can tell us about almost every aspect of a society. Creating object biographies is a methodology for studying objects and tracking the changes in their meaning.

    What is a Book?
    Must it have paper? Must it have words? Must it have a cover? Must it have a single author? Must the author be aware of it? Books are born out of intent.

    Brief history of the Book


    Clay tablets and Scrolls Hand written Codices Illustrated Codices Gutenberg Revolution Electronic Revolution

    How do people use Books?


    Books do not dene their uses, it is dened by the user. Read Sold Shared Collected Practical

    How do books inuence People?


    Gells Art and Agency Latours Actor Network Theory Mausss Theory of Gift Giving Kopytoff s Object Biographies

    Books as symbols and Signs


    Books as symbols can mean different things to different people. Symbolise the words and text. Academia, Literacy and Freedom of Expression. Books embody their authors and the views of their authors.

    Key Sources
    Appadurai, A. (ed), 1986. The Social Life of Things. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Eliot, S and Rose, J (eds), 2007. A Companion to the History of the Book. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Gell, A. 1998. Art and Agency. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Gosden, C. and Marshall, Y., 1999. The Cultural Biography of Objects. World Archaeology 32(2): 169-178. Latour, B. 2005. Reassembling the Social Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mauss, M. 1967. The Gift. Cambridge: Routledge. Miller, D (ed). 2005. Materiality. Durham: Duke University Press. Preucel, R. 2006. Archaeological Semiotics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Rothenberg, J and Clay, S (eds). A Book of the Book. New York: Granary Books. Webb, J. 2009. The Book Objects. Journal of Writing and Creative Practice. 2(1): 27-44. Woodward, I. 2007. Understanding Material Culture. London: Sage Publishing.

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