The Pleasures of Contamination: Evidence, Text, and Voice in Textual Studies (Textual Cultures: Theory and Praxis) - Softcover

Greetham, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0253222168 ISBN 13: 9780253222169

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2010

Synopsis

Through the concept of contamination, David Greetham highlights various ways that one text may invade another, carrying with it a residue of potential meaning. While the focus of this study is on written works, the scope ranges widely over music, politics, art, science, philosophy, religion, and social studies. Greetham argues that this sort of contamination is not only ubiquitous in contemporary culture, but may also be a necessary and beneficial circumstance. Tracing contamination from the Middle Ages onward, he takes up issues such as the placement of quote marks in Keats's "Ode to a Grecian Urn," the controversy over the use of evidence for "yellowcake" uranium in Niger, and the reconstitution of reality on YouTube, to illustrate that the basic questions of evidence, fact, and voice have always been slippery concepts.

About this title

About the Author:

David Greetham is Distinguished Professor of English, Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, and Medieval Studies at the CUNY Graduate School and founder of the interdisciplinary Society for Textual Scholarship. He is author of Theories of the Text and Textual Transgressions: Essays toward the Construction of a Biobibliography.

Review:

. . . particularly impressive in its engaging style and wide-ranging scope ... The writing throughout is smart and fun. . . Summing Up: Highly recommended. July 2011 (Choice)

About this edition

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0253222168
• ISBN 13: 9780253222169
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 402