Symbolic Caxton: Literary Culture and Print Capitalism - Softcover

Kuskin, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 026803317X ISBN 13: 9780268033170

Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press, 2008

Synopsis

Symbolic Caxton is the first study to explore the introduction of printing in symbolic terms. It presents a powerful literary history in which the fifteenth century is crucial to the overall story of English literature. William Kuskin argues that the development of print production is part of a larger social network involving the political, economic, and literary systems that produce the intangible constellations of identity and authority. For Kuskin, William Caxton (1422–1491), the first English printer, becomes a unique lens through which to view these issues. Kuskin contends that recognizing the fundamental complexity inherent in the transformation from manuscript to print―the power of literature to formulate its audience, the intimacy of capital and communication, the closeness of commodities and identity―makes possible a clear understanding of the way cultural, bibliographical, financial, and technological instruments intersect in a process of symbolic production. While this book is the first to connect the contents of late medieval literature to its technological form, it also speaks to contemporary culture, wrestling with our own paradigm shift in the relationship between literature and technology.

“This is an important book about the origins of printing and print culture in England by North America’s leading younger scholar of William Caxton. It will contribute to debates about the English fifteenth century and the nature of Chaucerian reception. And it will offer a productive qualification and, at times, corrective to larger and more general accounts of print history.” ―Seth Lerer, Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities, Stanford University

“This elegant, closely-argued study is one of the most important books to have yet appeared on Caxton and fifteenth-century English literary culture. Kuskin’s fine-grained attention to book history, his allegiance to the conceptual methodology of ‘history of the book’, and his command of literary history all combine to reconfigure our view of early print production, patronage, commerce, and literary authority. This is a major contribution to the history of vernacular textual production and vernacular knowledge in the fifteenth century―and to media history as a whole.” ―Professor Ruth Evans, The University of Stirling

"There are certainly recent books on Caxton, but none that takes the literary approach used here, which is what makes the book such an important contribution to the field. It serves as a solid introduction to the subject of printing in England in the fifteenth century. William Kuskin shows how print, through a 'logic of reproduction,' constructs and shapes its audience." ―Maura Nolan, University of California, Berkeley

About this title

About the Author

William Kuskin is associate professor of English at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is the editor of Caxton's Trace: Studies in the History of English Printing (University of Notre Dame Press, 2006)

Review

"Kuskin's writing is richly associative, animated by an energetic eclecticism of reference. This wide-ranging approach is suited to the book's goals, since the importance of considering all these aspects of books together, of uniting the material and sociocultural history of books with the critical study of the literary texts inside them, is one of Kuskin's central contentions. It is hoped that this conceptually complex and valuable study finds an audience with both literary critics and historians." (Renaissance Quarterly)

"In Symbolic Caxton, William Kuskin describes the introduction of printing from a material culture perspective and looks at the impact of mass production and patronage on the consumption of Caxton's books." (Year's Work in English Studies)

“William Kuskin’s new study of Caxton’s career, and his significance in English literary history, grows directly from the essays assembled in his edited collection Caxton’s Trace. . . . Kuskin has read all the relevant literature and is keen to engage with it. His arguments are also enhanced with copious and appealing illustrations.” (Speculum)

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 026803317X
• ISBN 13: 9780268033170
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416