Items related to The Letter and the Cosmos: How the Alphabet Has Shaped...
From our first ABCs to the Book of Revelation’s statement that Jesus is “the Alpha and Omega,” we see the world through our letters. More than just a way of writing, the alphabet is a powerful concept that has shaped Western civilization and our daily lives. In The Letter and the Cosmos, Laurence de Looze probes that influence, showing how the alphabet has served as a lens through which we conceptualize the world and how the world, and sometimes the whole cosmos, has been perceived as a kind of alphabet itself. Beginning with the ancient Greeks, he traces the use of alphabetic letters and their significance from Plato to postmodernism, offering a fascinating tour through Western history.
A sharp and entertaining examination of how languages, letterforms, orthography, and writing tools have reflected our hidden obsession with the alphabet, The Letter and the Cosmos is illustrated with copious examples of the visual and linguistic phenomena which de Looze describes. Read it, and you’ll never look at the alphabet the same way again.
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About the Author:
Laurence de Looze is a professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Western Ontario.
Review:
“The Letter and the Cosmos is a groundbreaking and enjoyable read about the role played by the alphabet in Western culture. Laurence de Looze’s remarkable ability to synthesise and explain, with clarity and elegance, complex situations and ideas makes the reader wonder why it has not been addressed before. The considerable challenge of encompassing centuries of Western culture has been met with much grace and marks an important contribution to the field.”
(Madeline Jeay, Department of French, McMaster University)“This study is a synthesis of erudition and curiosity that manages to capture the reader’s interest with its lucid and straightforward style. Never before has the subject, on how the alphabet conditions perception in Western culture, been addressed with such scope.”
(Laura Kendrick, Institut d'Etudes Culturelles et Internationales, Université de Versailles / Paris-Saclay)"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherUniversity of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
- Publication date2016
- ISBN 10 1442650605
- ISBN 13 9781442650602
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages288
- Rating
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