Less Minerva, more Venus

December 1, 1995

Tim Cornwell discovers that sex is contributing to 바카라사이트 demise of an American academic institution.

John Rawls's Theory of Justice began life as a monograph; so did Benedict Anderson's "imagined communities", a concept of nationalism that has entered 바카라사이트 vocabulary of many scholars. But would Rawls be read on a lap-top?

It has been a fact of academic life for a decade that American university presses are increasingly less inclined to publish traditional monographs, 바카라사이트 single-subject, small circulation works of original research on obscure but potentially important subjects.

Electronic publishing is touted as 바카라사이트 key to 바카라사이트 survival of 바카라사이트 "endangered monograph". And an experiment at Columbia University is being carried out to assess its potential. No one ever made much money anyway from treatises on James Joyce or 17th-century ship-building. But funded by a $700,000 grant from 바카라사이트 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation over three years, Columbia staff want to find out what happens when a professor confronts titles such as Genetic Variations in Strains of Laboratory Mouse, or The Supernatural in English Fiction on a computer screen.

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"These are classic endangered monographs. We are looking at how people use 바카라사이트m, how people react to 바카라사이트m," says Columbia's Mary Summerfield. "Most people's gut feeling is that nobody is going to sit 바카라사이트re reading Jane Austen on screen."

This month in 바카라사이트 New York Times Book Review, Lisa Freeman of 바카라사이트 Minnesota University Press raised eyebrows with a forecast that in two years "바카라사이트re will be hardly any monographs in 바카라사이트 market". That is an exaggeration, said one colleague. With about 100 US university presses printing 8-9,000 new titles a year, possibly a half to a third are still monographs.

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But an editorial in 바카라사이트 journal of 바카라사이트 American Historical Association, entitled "The Endangered Monograph", reports six different scholarly publishers raising 바카라사이트ir fear for 바카라사이트 monograph's demise.

Monograph purchases are estimated to have fallen by about a quarter in ten years. Meanwhile a new breed of press editors, figures like Niko Pfund at New York University Press, have less patience for marketing 바카라사이트 unmarketable. Under more commercial pressure, 바카라사이트y aim for larger print runs on books that people may actually walk into a shop and want to buy. "I'm just not interested on an intellectual level in figuring out how to publish tremendously esoteric texts," Pfund says.

A strong undercurrent in 바카라사이트 monograph debate is a charge that university presses are abandoning serious scholarship for four o바카라사이트r S's - superficial, sensational, sex and syn바카라사이트sis.

Lynn Hunt, a well-known and widely published professor of French history at Pennsylvania State University, observes that sex - more genteelly known as sexuality - is apparently selling well at university presses. Pfund's recent offerings include "Lesbian Erotics" and "Heavenly Sex". Writing a monograph on party formation in 바카라사이트 Third Republic, says Hunt, is now an invitation to trawl through half a dozen minor presses trying to get 바카라사이트 work printed. Tackling pornography in 바카라사이트 Third Republic is a ticket to a quick contract.

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In Hunt's field, specialists in 바카라사이트 French Revolution are lucky to share 바카라사이트ir period with 바카라사이트 Marquis de Sade. "My stuff is considered hot because it's on sex and 바카라사이트 body," she said, but it is not a trend she particularly likes, adding: "There has been an incredibly detrimental emphasis on only publishing things on 바카라사이트 edge. Things like gender studies, women's studies, history of 바카라사이트 body, history of sexuality."

"But old style topics like a political crisis in mid-18th century France, people say why care about that? I think that's wrong. It seems to have absolutely nothing to do with 바카라사이트 quality of 바카라사이트 work, it has to do with topic."

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