Approaches to the history of written culture : a world inscribed

Abstract

This book investigates the history of writing as a cultural practice in a variety of contexts and periods. It analyses the rituals and practices determining intimate or "ordinary' writing as well as bureaucratic and religious writing. From the inscribed images of "pre-literate' societies, to the democratization of writing in the modern era, access to writing technology and its public and private uses are examined. In ten studies, presented by leading historians of scribal culture from seven countries, the book investigates the uses of writing in non-alphabetical as well as alphabetical script, in societies ranging from Native America and ancient Korea to modern Europe. The authors emphasise the material characteristics of writing, and in so doing they pose questions about the definition of writing itself. Drawing on expertise in various disciplines, they give an up-to-date account of the current state of knowledge in a field at the forefront of "Book History'.Machine generated contents note: |g1.|tWorld Inscribed -- Introduction /|rRita Marquilhas -- |g2.|tBabylonian Scribes and Their Libraries /|rFrancis Joannes -- |g3.|tWritings in the Korean Han'gul Script by and for the Women of Choson Korea (1392--1910) /|rSeoKyung Han -- |g4.|tPaper World: The Materiality of Loss in the Pre-Modern Age /|rJohn Gagne -- |g5.|tWritings on the Streets: Ephemeral Texts and Public Space in the Early Modern Hispanic World /|rAntonio Castillo Gomez -- |g6.|tWriting One's Life: The French School of the Anthropology of Writing /|rNicolas Adell -- |g7.|tCalendar, Chronicle and Songs of Sorrows: Generic Sources of Life Writing in Nineteenth-Century Finland /|rAnna Kuismin -- |g8.|tReading the `Cheyenne Letter': Towards a Typology of Inscription beyond the Alphabet /|rGermaine Warkentin -- |g9.|tScribal Culture of Children: A Fragmentary History /|rVeronica Sierra Blas -- |g10.|tPolicing Writing in the City, 1852--1945: The Invention of Scriptural Delinquency /|rPhilippe Artieres -- |g11.|tQWERTYUIOP: How the Typewriter Influenced Writing Practices /|rMartyn Lyons -- |g12.|tFuture of the History of Writing /|rMartyn Lyons.