UNIVERSITY OF KENT
MODULE SPECIFICATION TEMPLATE
1.
Title of the module: From Caxton to the Kindle: History of the Book
2.
School which will be responsible for management of the module School of English
3.
Start date of the module September 2011
4.
The cohort of students (onwards) to which module will be applicable September 2011
5.
The number of students expected to take the module 12
6.
Modules to be withdrawn on the introduction of this proposed module and consultation
with other relevant Schools and Faculties regarding the withdrawal
7.
Level of module (e.g. Certificate [C], Intermediate [I], Honours [H] or Postgraduate [M]) M
8.
The number of credits which the module represents 30
Note: undergraduate full-time students take modules amounting to 120 credits per year
and postgraduate full-time students take modules amounting to 180 credits per year for a
Masters award
9.
Which term(s) the module is to be taught in (or other teaching pattern) Autumn
10. Prerequisite and co-requisite modules None
11. The programme(s) of study to which the module contributes MA English Programmes
12. The intended subject specific learning outcomes and, as appropriate, their relationship to
programme learning outcomes
Students will have:
a) reflected on the wide range of approaches to the ‘History of the Book’ (descriptive
bibliography, sociology of texts, textual criticism in editing, the history of reading, book trade
history, etc.), and developed an understanding of how particular approaches relate to their own
scholarly practice
b) developed practical skills with regard to the identification, structural analysis, and description
of printed books from the hand-press era
c) acquired basic competences with regard to the handling, conservation and storage of printed
books, through hands-on study in the rare books collection of Canterbury Cathedral library.
d) confidently applied advanced techniques within their work
e) understood through practice the relationship between the material contruction of books and
their semantic contents
f) tested their practical skills by undertaking a formal bibliographical description of a pre-1800
book from the collection at Canterbury Cathedral library.
g) planned and undertaken a 5,000-word essay which demonstrates a developed sense of how a
branch (or branches) of the history of the book might apply to a given printed book (or books), or
to a given author’s published works.
h) identified, critically evaluated and interrogated particular themes and historiographical
techniques in contemporary book history (for example: the fate of the book in the digital age; the
history of guilds, censorship and copyright; the aesthetics of typography and mise-en-page; the
‘mock book’; library history; the outputs of popular presses (broadsides, ballads, etc.); textual
theory and criticism)
13. The intended generic learning outcomes and, as appropriate, their relationship to
programme learning outcomes
At the end of the module, students will have:
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a) developed a critical and a technical language
b) learned to apply those languages to their own work, through collective- and
self-criticism
c) developed, in part through b), sympathy with traditions other than those in
which they themselves are working
d) increased confidence and ability to work in group situations
e) advanced communicative and collaborative skills
f)
capacity for independent imaginative projects and research
g) learned to gather and evaluate a range of materials from diverse contexts
14. A synopsis of the curriculum
Caxton to the Kindle is a course designed for students taking MAs in Medieval and EarlyModern Studies, in Eighteenth-Century Studies, and in Dickens and Victorian Culture –
although it will appeal to all masters students interested in publishing, editing, digital
humanities or librarianship. Five of the ten seminars are given in the great medieval
library of Canterbury Cathedral, where students (under the supervision of the course
convenor and of Karen Brayshaw, the cathedral’s head librarian) will be able to examine
and work with the treasures of this famous collection. These include some of the very
earliest English books printed at the shop of Caxton and de Wyrd, a copy of Hartmann
Schedel’s Nuremberg Chronicle, and a second folio of Shakespeare, to name only a few
of its 30,000 rare and beautiful holdings from the sixteenth- to nineteenth-centuries. The
module aims to provide students with a set of transferable study skills that are crucial for
all kinds of advanced documentary research work, including literary study at doctoral
level. It also provides an introduction to contemporary ‘Book History’ theory, and offers
students a chance to investigate its implications for the work of a range of authors from
the early-modern to Victorian periods.
The first five seminars of the course will be held in the library of Canterbury Cathedral, and
will involve hands-on work with printed books. During these weeks students will learn how to
make brief technical descriptions and structural collations of books from the age of handpress printing (ie. c.1450-c.1820). They will find out about the relationship between the horstexte (frontispieces, title pages, prefaces, dedications etc.) and the main body of the printed
work. They will learn about the construction of books out of gatherings of paper sheets, and
about the alteration of gatherings by means of cancels, insertions and tip-ins. Using the
extraordinary annotated volumes in the library's Elham collection, they will have a chance to
test recent theories and histories of reading against primary evidence.
The second series of five seminars will be given on the main campus, and will focus on
recently developed digital resources for the study of book history. Students will be shown
pathways for applying both the practical skills learned in weeks 1-5 and their theoretical
reflections on readings in ‘Book History’ to the study of particular authors and works. The
specific focus here will be on newly-published electronic archives of works by Jonathan Swift,
Jane Austen, William Blake, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Emily Dickinson.
Structure of the course:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Incunabula (books printed before 1501) [technical: sizes of paper, sizes of books]
Hand-press era, 1501-1660 [technical: hors-texte]
Hand-press era, 1661-c.1820 [technical: gatherings]
Annotation and the traces of reading [technical: disruptions of gatherings]
Serialization and mass-printing after c.1820 [technical: making a descriptive collation]
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UNIVERSITY OF KENT
6. [students choose a volume from the cathedral archives, and make a description of its
format and construction using acknowledged bibliographical conventions]
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Beyond Bibliography: What is the History of the Book?
Mocking the Modern Book [Jonathan Swift, A Tale of a Tub and associated works]
From Manuscript to Book [Jane Austen’s Fiction Manuscripts]
Text and Illumination [William Blake, D.G. Rossetti and Emily Dickinson Archives]
The Future of the Book [GoogleBooks, e-readers and the ownership of texts]
15. Indicative Reading List
Primary.
Jonathan Swift, A Tale of a Tub and other Works, ed. Marcus Walsh (CUP, 2010)
http://www.jonathanswiftarchive.org.uk
Jane Austen, Later Manuscripts, eds. Janet Todd and Linda Bree (CUP, 2008)
http://www.janeausten.ac.uk
William Blake, The Complete Illuminated Books (Thames and Hudson, 2000)
http://www.blakearchive.org
http://www.rossettiarchive.org
Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems, ed. Thomas H Johnson (Little, Brown, 1988)
http://www.emilydickinson.org
Secondary.
John Barnard et al. (eds.) The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, 7 vols. (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2002-)
Fredson Bowers, Principles of Bibliographical Description (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1949)
Bill Cope and Angus Philips (eds.), The Future of the Book in the Digital Age (London: Chandos,
2006)
Robert Darnton, The Case for Books: Past, Present and Future (New York: Public Affairs, 2009)
Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, rev. ed. (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2005)
Simon Elliot and Jonathan Rose (eds.) A Companion to the History of the Book (Oxford: Blackwell,
2009)
David Finklestein and Alistair McCleery (eds.), The Book History Reader (London: Routledge, 2nd
ed. 2006)
---, An Introduction to Book History (London: Routledge, 2005)
Philip Gaskell, A New Introduction to Bibliography (1972; corr. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974)
D.C. Greetham, Textual Scholarship: an Introduction (London: Routledge, 2nd rev’d ed. 2005)
Adrian Johns, The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making (Chicago: Chicago
University Press, 2000)
Alberto Manguel, A History of Reading (London: Flamingo, 1997)
Jerome McGann, The Textual Condition (Princeton: Princeton Unviersity Press, 1991)
---, A Critique of Modern Textual Criticism (1983; new edition, University Press of Virginia, 1992)
Don McKenzie, Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts: The Panizzi Lectures 1985 (London:
British Library, 1986)
David Pearson, Books as History: The Importance of Books beyond their Text (London: British
Library, 2008)
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UNIVERSITY OF KENT
Andrew Pettegree, The Book in the Renaissance (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010)
James Raven, The Business of Books: Booksellers and the English Book Trade 1450-1850 (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 2007)
Mark Rose, Authors and Owners: The Invention of Copyright (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1993)
Peter L. Shillingsburg, From Gutenberg to Google: Electronic Representations of Literary Texts
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006)
Kathryn Sutherland and Marilyn Deegan, Transferred Illusions: Digital Technology and the Forms
of Print (London: Ashgate, 2009)
G. Thomas Tanselle, Bibliographical Analysis: An Historical Introduction (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2009)
Evelyn B. Tribble, Margins and Marginality: The Printed Page in Early Modern England
(Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993)
Wendy Wall, The Imprint of Gender: Authorship and Publication in the English Renaissance
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993)
16. Learning and Teaching Methods, including the nature and number of contact hours and the
total study hours which will be expected of students, and how these relate to
achievement of the intended learning outcomes
The module will be taught through weekly two-hour workshops and seminars.
During the first five weeks of term workshops will be held in the library of
Canterbury Cathedral, in collaboration with the cathedral’s head librarian, Karen
Brayshaw. During the second half of term seminars will be held on campus.
There will be an opportunity for students to have tutorials.
17. Assessment methods and how these relate to testing achievement of the intended
learning outcomes
The module will be assessed using a combination of practical test (30% of total mark;
week 6) and essay writing (70% of total mark; week 12). During week 6, in consultation
with the module tutor and the cathedral librarian, each student will select a book or text
from the cathedral collections, and write a formal bibliographical description of it (with
collation formula), using techniques taught during the weeks 1-5 workshops. At the end
of term students will submit an essay of 5,000 words, applying selected techniques and
theories of book history to a chosen book or author.
The week 6 practical will test specific outcomes b), c), d) and f); and generic outcomes
a), d), e), f) and g). The dissertation will test all specific learning outcomes, and general
outcomes a), b), c), f) and g).
18. Implications for learning resources, including staff, library, IT and space
The module will be taught by Paddy Bullard. The main implications involve co-ordinated
planning with Karen Brayshaw at the cathedral library. The university already pays a fee to the
cathedral for access to its collections, and the cathedral is very eager to re-establish pedagogic
links with us. Teaching space, access to collections and the assistance of Karen Brayshaw are
therefore available to us without any extraordinary financial liability to the School of English.
Before the course runs, it will be necessary for the Templeman Library to acquire any of the
volumes listed above not currently in its collections.
19. The School/Collaborative Partner (delete as applicable) recognises and has embedded
the expectations of current disability equality legislation, and supports students with a
declared disability or special educational need in its teaching. Within this module we will
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make reasonable adjustments wherever necessary, including additional or substitute
materials, teaching modes or assessment methods for students who have declared and
discussed their learning support needs. Arrangements for students with declared
disabilities will be made on an individual basis, in consultation with the
University’s/Collaborative Partner’s (delete as applicable) disability/dyslexia support
service, and specialist support will be provided where needed.
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