Illuminating Letters: Typography and Literary Interpretation (Studies in Print Culture and the History of the Book)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.30 (599 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1558492887 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 216 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-05-17 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Benton is associate professor of English at Pacific Lutheran University and author of Beauty and the Book: Fine Editions and Cultural Distinction in America.. Megan L. Gutjahr is assistant professor of English at Indiana University and author of An American Bible: A History of the Good Book in the United States. Paul C
Because of its accessible explanations and excellent illustrations it will appeal to both the scholarly and the general reader. (Claire Hoertz Badaracco, Marquette University) . This is a very good, very interesting book
Together these essays demonstrate that choices about type selection and arrangement do indeed help to orchestrate textual meaning. Price, Leon Jackson, and Gene Kannenberg Jr.. Looking at texts ranging from the King James Bible to contemporary comic strips, the contributors to Illuminating Letters examine the seldom considered but richly revealing relationships between a text's typography and its literary interpretation. What do we read when we read a text? The author's words, of course, but is that all? The prevailing publishing ethic has insisted that typography -- the selection and arrangement of type and other visual elements on a page -- should be an invisible, silent, and deferential servant to the text it conveys. As the contributors show, closer inspection of those forms can yield fresh insights into the significance of a text's material presentation, leading readers to appreciate better how presentation shapes understandings of the text's meanings and values. This book contests that conventional point of view. In addition to the editors, contributors include Sarah A. Kelen, Beth McCoy, Steven R. The essays assume no previous typographic knowledge or expertise; instead they invite readers prim
Not my thing wiredweird I enjoy good typography. I know that, at more than a mere visual level, organization and presentation of text can change the viewer's experience of it in many ways. This collection of essays gets way too over-intellectual for my taste, though.The first essay dealt with typography as it expresses religious politics. The second presents typography as an expression of gender politics. The third offers examples of typography as racial politics. (See the pattern?) That's the point at which I gav. Outstanding Collection! So Well Put Together! Spencer in Seattle This collection is outstanding: it is so much more than any single author could possibly do and, as it is carefully curated and connected (using bridge mini-essays between chapters), it connects as a treatise on the topic. The only weak contribution, in my reading, is the essay on Nella Larsen; though it is interesting to to read about how Larsen's type changed as a way of making her more appealing to contemporary scholars, that argument (and the aligned one about connections w/ Von Vectin)