Synopses & Reviews
This is a richly imaginative study of machines for writing and reading at the end of the nineteenth century in America. Its aim is to explore writing and reading as culturally contingent experiences, and at the same time to broaden our view of the relationship between technology and textuality.
At the books heart is the proposition that technologies of inscription are materialized theories of language. Whether they failed (like Thomas Edisons “electric pen”) or succeeded (like typewriters), inscriptive technologies of the late nineteenth century were local, often competitive embodiments of the way people experienced writing and reading. Such a perspective cuts through the determinism of recent accounts while arguing for an interdisciplinary method for considering texts and textual production.
Starting with the cacophonous promotion of shorthand alphabets in postbellum America, the author investigates the assumptions—social, psychic, semiotic—that lie behind varying inscriptive practices. The “grooves” in the books title are the delicate lines recorded and played by phonographs, and readers will find in these pages a surprising and complex genealogy of the phonograph, along with new readings of the history of the typewriter and of the earliest silent films. Modern categories of authorship, representation, and readerly consumption emerge here amid the un- or sub-literary interests of patent attorneys, would-be inventors, and record producers. Modern subjectivities emerge both in ongoing social constructions of literacy and in the unruly and seemingly unrelated practices of American spiritualism, “Coon” songs, and Rube Goldberg-type romanticism.
Just as digital networks and hypertext have today made us more aware of printed books as knowledge structures, the development and dissemination of the phonograph and typewriter coincided with a transformed awareness of oral and inscribed communication. It was an awareness at once influential in the development of consumer culture, literary and artistic experiences of modernity, and the disciplinary definition of the “human” sciences, such as linguistics, anthropology, and psychology. Recorded sound, typescripts, silent films, and other inscriptive media are memory devices, and in todays terms the author offers a critical theory of ROM and RAM for the century before computers.
Review
"A signal contribution to the exploding historiography of the phonograph."Isis
Synopsis
“A signal contribution to the exploding historiography of the phonograph.”—Isis
“The range of Gitelmans evidence is impressive: deep research in the Edison archives, labels, patent documents, and literary sources. Historians will gain the most from the early chapters about the prehistory of phonography and the ways Americans perceived Edisons phonograph.”—The Historian
Synopsis
Innovative and imaginative study of 'machines' for writing and reading in late nineteenth century America.
Synopsis
An innovative and imaginative study of machines for writing and reading in late nineteenth century America, this book argues that these inscriptive technologies were materialized theories of language: that is, embodiments of the way people perceived writing and reading. Beginning with the promotion of shorthand alphabets, the author investigates varying inscriptive practices, from a surprising and complex genealogy of the phonograph, to new readings of the history of the typewriter and of the earliest silent films. Technological developments coincided with a new awareness of oral and inscribed communication which influenced the growth of consumer culture, literary and artistic experiences of modernity, and the definition of the 'human' sciences, such as linguistics, anthropology, and psychology. As a parallel with the present, this book will resonate with readers who are engaged daily with computer networks, hypertexts, and the forms that mass media will take in the new century.
Synopsis
This is a richly imaginative study of machines for writing and reading at the end of the nineteenth century in America. Its aim is to explore writing and reading as culturally contingent experiences, and at the same time to broaden our
Synopsis
This is a study of machines for writing and reading at the end of the 19th century in America. Its aim is to explore writing and reading as culturally contingent experiences, and at the same time to broaden our view of the relationship between technology and textuality. At the book's heart is the proposition that technologies of inscription are materialized theories of language.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 257-275) and index.
About the Author
Lisa Gitelman is Assistant Professor of English and Media Studies at the Catholic University of America.
Table of Contents
Introduction: writing things down, storing them up; 1. Making history, spelling things out; 2. Imagining language machines; 3. Patent instrument and reading machine; 4. Paperwork and performance; 5. Automatic writing; Coda: the (hyper) textuality of everyday life; Notes; Bibliography; Index.