The course covers selected topics in the history of European writing and forms of literary expression. We begin with the Semitic alphabet which the Greeks borrowed and adapted to produce written literature. We examine literacy and literature as a cultural phenomenon and an index of civilization in Mediterranean Antiquity and the European Middle Ages. The technical revolution of printing increased the potential of the written word, through newspapers, broadsides, learned journals, popular magazines. More recent electronic information systems enlarge the scope of what can be written for the public. We also examine the development of new alphabetical forms and new formats (from papyrus rolls, for instance, to open books), as well as the places where books have been made, used, collected and stored.
Prerequisites
None.
Credit Hours
Three.
Course Instructors
Robert Rodgers and Connell
Gallagher
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Last updated: 30 August 2005 |