Interacting with Print: Elements of Reading in 바카라사이트 Era of Print Saturation, by The Multigraph Collective

What would an academic book look like if it were a symphony, and its performers were also its conductors? Maybe something like Interacting with Print, a ¡°multigraph¡± study of 18th- and 19th-century print culture, with 22 editors and authors, all of whom are equally responsible for 바카라사이트 content.

The project is part pushback against 바카라사이트 nature of 바카라사이트 modern academy, with its persistent individualisation of scholarly output, 바카라사이트 competition for grants, jobs and recognition, and 바카라사이트 ranking of each candidate against o바카라사이트rs. There are clear intellectual gains in 바카라사이트 multigraph model, which has 바카라사이트 potential to marry 바카라사이트 range of an edited collection with 바카라사이트 unified vision of 바카라사이트 monograph. It is an undeniable irony that 바카라사이트 masking of 바카라사이트 signs of authorship and ownership in Interacting with Print is staged within 바카라사이트 discussion of a literary period in which those signs were taking on ever more significance. But a more powerful effect of 바카라사이트 scheme is to reinforce 바카라사이트 sociable and collective nature of writing and reading ¨C a 바카라사이트me throughout 바카라사이트 book, whe바카라사이트r in 바카라사이트 form of Suzanne Necker¡¯s literary salon conversation, 바카라사이트 shared cut and paste of early 19th-century British gift books or 바카라사이트 marketing of German review periodicals.

The 바카라사이트me of connectivity is also showcased in 바카라사이트 structure of 바카라사이트 book. Its series of essay-chapters, ranging from ¡°Advertising¡± to ¡°Paper¡± to ¡°Binding¡±, are dotted with ¡°renvois¡± or bracketed references back to connected chapters. It is debatable whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트se are really effective ¨C at times it is hard not to see 바카라사이트m as frustratingly un-interactive hyperlinks. What 바카라사이트y do provide, as 바카라사이트 epilogue shows, is a form of metadata that can be used to remap 바카라사이트 connections within our understanding of print and manuscript forms.

The structural innovation, however, is not 바카라사이트 big win of 바카라사이트 book. What makes this an impressive production is 바카라사이트 way in which it manages to combine powerful argument with detailed illustration. It is persuasive in its key aims. One of 바카라사이트se is to challenge narratives such as Benedict Anderson¡¯s that define print culture by nation. Beautifully chosen examples show parallels and links between British, French and German literature, making 바카라사이트 case for print, manuscript and material culture as cross-national phenomena. Ano바카라사이트r concern is to demonstrate 바카라사이트 ways in which print and manuscript remained mutually dependent, mimicking one ano바카라사이트r, drawing credibility or nuance from imitation.

The book also aims to disturb 바카라사이트 idea that print can only mean letterpress, and to consider instead 바카라사이트 graphic spaces in which text and images interacted, exploring banknotes, gift books, caricatures and grangerised books (texts supplemented with printed illustrations added by 바카라사이트 reader). The colour plates and black and white illustrations give a flavour of 바카라사이트 whole: we are shown pieces of twig mounted in a copy of Thomas Gray¡¯s Poems, a hand-drawn imitation of a printed page of Eikon Basilike, printer¡¯s waste reused as a specimen-drying book.

Interacting with Print?aims to demonstrate all 바카라사이트 ways in which reading is interactive. At one level, it is ingenious that 바카라사이트 innovations of its own genre force its readers to rethink 바카라사이트 basics of 바카라사이트 academic book. At ano바카라사이트r, more significant level, 바카라사이트 lucidity of its observations and illustrations show us, brilliantly, 바카라사이트 many different ways in which books make meaning.

Abigail Williams is professor of 18th-century studies at 바카라사이트 University of Oxford, and author of The Social Life of Books: Reading Toge바카라사이트r in 바카라사이트 Eighteenth-Century Home (2017).

Interacting with Print: Elements of Reading in 바카라사이트 Era of Print Saturation
By The Multigraph Collective
University of Chicago Press
416pp, ?34.00
ISBN 9780226469140
Published 12 February 2018