The Russian Graphosphere, 1450-1850
Cambridge University Press, 3/18/2021
EAN 9781108716901, ISBN10: 1108716903
Paperback, 432 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
The 'graphosphere' is the dynamic space of visible words. Graphospheres mutate, they are reconfigured with changes in technology, in modes of production, in social structures, in fashion and taste. The graphospheric environment can be public or private, monumental or ephemeral. This book explores a new approach to the study of writing, with a focus on Russia during its 'long early modernity' from the late fifteenth century to the early nineteenth century. Taking an inclusive approach, it charts unmapped territory, uncovers sources that have almost entirely escaped attention and therefore provides, in the first instance, a unique reference guide to cultures of writing in Russia over four hundred years. Besides generating fresh insights into distinctive features of Russian culture, this outward-looking and accessible book offers a pioneering case study for the wider comparative exploration of the significance of technologies of the word.
1. Concepts and contexts
2. Production in the graphosphere, I
primary writing
3. Production in the graphosphere, II
secondary writing
4. Scripts and languages of the graphosphere
5. Places and times of the graphosphere
6. Aspects of the ecology of the graphosphere
7. Aspects of authority and status in the graphosphere
8. (In)conclusion.