Voice, Text, Hypertext: Emerging Practices in Textual Studies

Voice, Text, Hypertext illustrates brilliantly why interest in textual studies has grown so dramatically in recent years. For the distinguished authors of these essays, a “text” is more than a document or material object. It is a cultural event, a matrix of decisions, an intricate cultural practice that may focus on religious traditions, modern “underground” literary movements, poetic invention, or the irreducible complexity of cultural politics.

Drawing from classical Roman and Indian to modern European traditions, the volume makes clear that to study a text is to study a culture. It also demonstrates the essential importance of heightened textual awareness for contemporary cultural studies and critical theory―and, indeed, for any discipline that studies human culture.

Raimonda Modiano and Leroy F. Searle are professors of English and comparative literature at the University of Washington, Seattle. Peter Shillingsburg is professor of English at the University of North Texas.