CMCL-C 334: Current Topics in Communication and Culture
(Topic: Cultures of Books and Reading)
Class Number: 15326

MW, 9:30 AM-10:45 AM, TE F260

A portion of this course reserved for majors

Instructor: Ted Striphas
E-Mail: striphas@indiana.edu
Office: Mottier Hall 200
Phone: 856-7868
Instructor Webpage: http://www.indiana.edu/~bookworm

Many people have claimed that ours is an age in which electronic
media predominate. Amid the flow of 24-hour radio and television,
the spectacle of cinema, the dizzyingly connective internet maze,
the kaleidoscopic intensity of digital gaming, and the breakneck
pace at which new media develop, it gets harder to imagine an “old-
fashioned” medium like books having much importance these days.

Yet, in many respects, books and book culture seem to be booming
well beyond college classrooms. Bookstores have been supersized.
Online bookstores promise even greater accessibility. Book clubs
like Oprah Winfrey’s, and book franchises like Harry Potter, inspire
legions of people to read—and to buy. Meanwhile, large multi-
national corporations publish more and more books every year, and
new types of digital reading devices are emerging.

Given these and other developments, now seems an appropriate time to
figure out how to talk about book culture. In this class, we will
explore how and why the shape of books has transformed over time.
We’ll also consider how relations of race, class, and gender
influence who reads what, with whom, and under what conditions, and
why we make value judgments about one another on the basis of which
books we read.  Finally, we’ll investigate questions of authorship,
ownership, and originality as they arise within the context of
books’ mass reproducibility.

More broadly, you’ll learn specific skills by which to research, and
critical frameworks by which to assess, the history and politics of
book culture. Grades likely will be based on
attendance/participation, a midterm exam, one short writing
assignment, a group presentation, and a final research project.

Required Text:

Finkelstein, David, and Alistair McCleery, eds. The Book History
Reader. London and New York: Routledge, 2002. ISBN: 0415226589.

One or two additional books will be chosen from among the following:
Elizabeth Long, Book Clubs: Women and the Uses of Reading in
Everyday Life; Alberto Manguel, A History of Reading; Janice A.
Radway, Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular
Literature; and André Schiffrin, The Business of Books: How the
International Conglomerates Took Over Publishing and Changed the Way
We Read.

A few required essays will be available on electronic reserve.