SILS - Spring 2013 CU206 INTRODUCTION TO EUROPEAN STUDIES Week 10: European Print Culture Novels, Newspapers, and Modernity Graham Law

Structure of today’s class l Three preliminary questions l The Gutenburg revolution (Marshall McLuhan) l Print and modernity (Benedict Anderson) l The rise of the novel (Franco Moretti) l The rise of the newspaper (Richard Altick) l Novels and newspapers (Graham Law) l Question & Answer Session

You can download this Powerpoint file from: You can download this Powerpoint file from: The essay titles for this unit are: 1) What were the consequences of the “Gutenburg Revolution” in Europe. OR 2) Was there a “Print Revolution” in East Asia? Graham Law CU206: Week 12: European Print Culture

Some preliminary questions l Where and when was PRINTING first invented? l Where and when was the first NOVEL published? l Where and when was the first NEWSPAPER published? Discuss the three questions with your neighbours

What Gutenburg didn’t invent l Printing –natural? l Woodblock printing –Egypt C6th? (on cloth) l Woodblock letter printing –China C8th? (on paper) l Movable wooden type –China C13th? l Movable metal type –Korea C14th

What did Gutenburg create? l Johann Gutenburg (c ) Mainz, Germany l movable type printing in Europe l the age of mechanical reproduction? l the beginnings of the modern world?

The Gutenburg revolution l The Gutenburg Galaxy (1962) l There Marshall McLuhan linked linked Gutenburg’s creation of Renaissance “typographic man”man” to to the rise of -- of Renaissance “typographic man”man” to to the rise of -- –the Reformation –modern science & technology –industrial capitalism –mass education & literacy –democracy l cf. E.L. Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change (1979)

Print and modernity l Benedict Anderson Imagined Communities (1983) l “Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism” l “ l “print-capitalism, which made it possible for rapidly growing numbers of people to think about themselves, and to relate themselves to others, in profoundly new ways” (p. 36) l l the novel and the newspaper: “two forms of imagining which... provided the technical means for ‘re-presenting’ the kind of imagined community that is the nation” (pp. 24-5)

The rise of the novel (1) l The mediaeval romance and the novel l Early 17th-century Spain l Cervantes Don Quixote (1605) Who is represented in the pictures? Who drew them?

The rise of the novel (2) l The tale of the pícaro (rogue) and the novel l Early 18th-century England l Defoe Robinson Crusoe (1719) Who is represented in the picture?

The novel and the nation l Franco Moretti l Atlas of the European Novel (1998) l “Village, court, city, valley, universe can all be visually represented -- in paintings, for instance: but the nation- state? Well, the nation-state … found the novel. And vice-versa: the novel found the nation-state. And being the only symbolic form that could represent it, the novel became an essential component of our modern culture.” (p. 17)

The rise of the newspaper (1) l Corantos [foreign news pamphlets] l Early C17th Italy, France, Holland, England,...

The rise of the newspaper (2) l Large-circulation daily national newspapers l Mid-19th-century France, USA,... l Tabloid size, sensational style...

The newspaper and the nation l Richard D. Altick l The English Common Reader (1957) l “Above all, the democratizing of reading led to a far-reaching revolution in English culture. No longer were books and periodicals written chiefly for the comfortable few; more and more as the [19th] century progressed, it was the ill-educated mass audience with pennies in its pocket that called the tune to which writers and editors danced.” (p. 5)

Novels & Newspapers (1) l Novels in newspapers –roman feuilleton in France,... l Novelists as journalists –Charles Dickens, … l Newspapers in novels –The media in War of the Worlds,... l Topicalities in novels –The “New Woman” in late C19th fiction,... –Cf. Altick, The Presence of the Present (1991)

Novels & Newspapers (2) l Graham Law l Serializing Fiction in the Victorian Press (2000) l Bagehot on Charles Dickens: l l “Mr Dickens’s genius is especially suited to the delineation of city life. London is like a newspaper. Everything is there, and everything is disconnected. There is every kind of person in some houses; but there is no more connection between the houses than between the neighbours in the lists of “births, marriages, and deaths.” As we change from the broad leader to the squalid police-report, we pass a corner and we are in a changed world. This is advantageous to Mr Dicken’s genius.... He describes London like a special correspondent for Posterity.” (National Review, October 1858)

Question & Answer Session Over to You

You can download this Powerpoint file from: You can download this Powerpoint file from: The essay titles for this unit are: 1) What were the consequences of the “Gutenburg Revolution” in Europe. OR 2) Was there a “Print Revolution” in East Asia? Graham Law CU206: Week 12: European Print Culture