How and why books matter: essays on the social function of iconic texts

Religious and secular communities ritualize some books in one, two, or three dimensions. They ritualize the dimension of semantic interpretation through teaching, preaching, and scholarly commentary. This dimension receives almost all the attention of academic scholars. Communities also ritualize a...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
1. Verfasser: Watts, James W. 1960- (VerfasserIn)
Format: Buch
Sprache:English
Veröffentlicht: Sheffield, UK ; Bristol, CT Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2019
Schriftenreihe:Comparative research on iconic and performative texts
Schlagworte:
Zusammenfassung:Religious and secular communities ritualize some books in one, two, or three dimensions. They ritualize the dimension of semantic interpretation through teaching, preaching, and scholarly commentary. This dimension receives almost all the attention of academic scholars. Communities also ritualize a text's performative dimension through public reading, recitation, and song, and also be reproducing its contents in art, theatre and film. This dimension is receiving increasing scholarly attention, especially in religious studies and anthropology. A third textual dimension, the iconic dimension, gets ritualized by manipulating the physical text, decorating it, and displaying it. This dimension has received almost no academic attention, yet features prominently in the most common news stories about books, whether about e-books, academic libraries, rare manuscript discoveries, or scripture desecrations. By calling attention to the iconic dimension of books, this book argues that we can better understand how physical books mediate social value and power within and between religious communities, nations, academic disciplines, and societies both ancient and modern
Beschreibung:viii, 218 Seiten 8 Illustrationen 24 cm
ISBN:9781781797686
9781781797679

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