Pick up a book. Any one will do. Look at its binding. What’s on its cover? Where are the pages numbers (top or bottom)? What typeface does it use?
We all handle books every day. Yet do we understand how these material features of books shape how we read them?
Most of us look only at the words on the page. But what of the other properties of the book? Does it make a difference to read the same book in different typefaces? How do covers and binding influence our understanding of the book?
A new postgraduate module in the school of literature and language studies at Wits University entitled ‘The History of the Book” provides answers to these kinds of questions.
The study of books as material objects has grown enormously over the past few decades. This field of study is known as ‘book history” and ‘the history of the book” and is taught in many parts of the world.
This module is the first of its kind in South Africa. It draws on scholarship from other parts of the world and also examines the history of the book in Africa.
If you’re a book fetishist, this course is for you.
For more details contact Professor Isabel Hofmeyr on (011) 717 4142/40; or e-mail [email protected]